A coordinated cyber attack earlier on tuesday disrupted a number of government websites in the country, leaving key digital platforms inaccessible and raising concerns over the country’s cyber security readiness.

Web portals belonging to the ministries and state agencies, including Health, Labour, Education, Tourism, ICT, Environment, Interior and State House were offline for few hours, after unidentified hackers breached the systems and defaced several pages.

“Access denied by PCP”, “We will rise again”, “White power worldwide’, and “14:88 Heil Hitler” are some of the slogans that appeared on the affected sites.The slogans are commonly linked to extremist and white supremacist groups.

Kenyans were left unable to access crucial online services and information after several state departments went dark.

Additionally, other critical sites including the Hustler Fund portal, government press websites and some of Nairobi county platforms, also experienced outages during the incident.

Some departments such as Defence and Treasury however, appeared to remain unaffected.

As per the quick assessment carried out, several major platforms including eCitizen, the Judiciary, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) and the National Police Service were functioning normally despite the disruptions.

This is not the first large-scale cyber onslaught case in the Kenyan government systems. A Sudanese hacker in 2023 claimed responsibility for a similar shutdown of government portals and corporate websites, alleging retaliation for what they claimed to be Kenya’s interference in Sudan’s internal affairs.

The attack has renewed calls to strengthen the cyber security frameworks in the country as government services continue to shift to digital platforms.