China Accused of Cyberattacks Against Kenya

ADF STAFF

New reporting details the extreme measures China will take to collect information about countries where it lends money.

An investigation by Reuters, published on May 24, revealed that Chinese hackers engaged in a widespread, three-year campaign of cyberattacks on the Kenyan government regarding the debt it owed to China and many other issues.

“A lot of documents from the ministry of foreign affairs were stolen and from the finance department as well,” a Kenyan cybersecurity expert told the news service.

Two of the sources Reuters relied on in its investigation said the hacks show that China is willing to use espionage and illegal cyberbreaches to surveil governments and protect its economic and strategic interests.

An East African intelligence analyst told Reuters the hacking campaign began in late 2019 and continued until at least 2022.

It started when a Kenyan government employee unwittingly downloaded a document infected with malware that allowed hackers to infiltrate a server used exclusively by Kenya’s primary spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and gain access to other agencies.

The incident was documented in a report by a private defense contractor that was reviewed by Reuters.

“Kenya is currently feeling the pressure of these debt burdens … as many of the projects financed by Chinese loans are not generating enough income to pay for themselves yet,” the report stated.

“Further compromises may occur as the requirement for understanding upcoming repayment strategies becomes needed.”

Documents showed that the hackers targeted the Kenyan president’s office and seven other government departments with persistent and prolonged cyber spying.

The analyst shared with Reuters research documents that included the timeline of attacks, the targets and technical data.

For its part, Kenya’s presidential office denies it was hacked, and China denies the hacking allegations.

In addition to the president’s office, Chinese hackers allegedly intruded on seven ministries: defense, finance, foreign, information, health, land and interior.

Reuters also found more recent activity.

“A review of internet logs [describing] the Chinese digital espionage activity showed that a server controlled by the Chinese hackers also accessed a shared Kenyan government webmail service more recently from December 2022 until February this year,” the investigative report stated.

China has a history of cyberattacks in Africa.

In 2017, bugs were found at African Union headquarters, built in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2012 as a $200 million gift from the Chinese. Investigations revealed that classified data had been copied to servers in Shanghai for five years. China denied any involvement.

Investment analyst Aly-Khan Satchu, who is based in Nairobi, Kenya, said the AU hack was “really alarming,” because it showed that “African countries have no leverage over China.”

“There’s this theory in Africa that China is Santa Claus. It isn’t,” he told the Financial Times newspaper. “Our leaders need to be disavowed of that notion.”

Kenya is trying to reduce its debt to China. As of March 2023, it owed $6.31 billion, down from a high of at $7.06 billion in June 2021.

President William Ruto, who took office in September 2022, has pledged to reduce foreign borrowing. At the same time, China has taken a more cautious approach to lending on the continent after the COVID-19 pandemic rattled its economy.

“It has been clear for a while that China’s Africa loan book has been maxed out and that China is being extremely parsimonious in terms of net new money,” Satchu told African Business magazine.

“President Ruto inherited a balance sheet which was running on empty with debt servicing consuming over 50% of government revenues and an economy which was correctly described as at high risk of debt distress.”