Kenya’s official presidential website was hacked on Saturday, 18 July 2026, with attackers replacing its homepage with a message targeting President William Ruto and demanding a ransom of five Bitcoins.
The hackers posted a cryptocurrency wallet address on the presidency website, president.go.ke, and threatened to release unspecified information if the ransom was not paid.
Information, Communications and the Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo confirmed the cyberattack, saying Government cybersecurity teams were investigating and responding to the incident. State House also said its Information and Communication Technology team was working to contain the breach and restore the website.
By Saturday afternoon, the defaced homepage had been removed and the website taken offline, although services had not yet been fully restored. Authorities said it was still unclear whether any government data had been compromised or if the attack was limited to the website’s public-facing pages.
The incident has renewed concerns over cybersecurity within Kenyan government institutions, which have experienced several attempted and successful cyberattacks in recent years.