Kenya Stockholm Blog

Anonymous, the online hacktivist group, has hacked the servers of Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and stole 1 terabyte of documents in emails, pdf and docx formats. Describing the theft as a “sophisticated cyber attack on the government of Kenya”, Anonymous said that part of the data has been leaked through the Dark Web and that the operation was conducted under the banner of OpAfrica, an anti-corruption hacktivist program targeting corrupt African governments.

The damped data include email conversations, security related communication, international trade agreements, letters discussing the security situation in Southern Sudan, conversation related to weapon clearance in Namibia, details about a business collaboration deal between Kenya and Oman and several other documents discussing state officials visiting Kenya.

Further, the documents touch on reports from Kenya mission in Juba at the start of the Southern Sudan conflict, updates from the ministry’s arm charged with Horn of Africa affairs and negotiations between Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir to try and resolve the Southern Sudanese civil war.

One document details communication when President Uhuru Kenyatta suggested to the two factions to sign a power-sharing agreement early in February last year. Dr. Machar rejected the offer because of personal security concerns and what he saw as dirty methods that were being employed by his protagonist to try and reach what he saw as a fake deal.

According to the released documents, Dr. Machar did not trust Uhuru Kenyatta with the handling of the deal because his view of Uhuru was that the Kenyan president had himself rigged the 2013 election to come to power and that under the circumstances, Kenyatta was not in a position to broker a peace deal between him and the Southern Sudanese government.

Another problem for Dr. Machar detailed in an email was that since Uhuru took power, he has presided over a corrupt government, just like Salva Kiir’s government which Dr. Machar had also accused of rampant corruption and marginalization of minority ethnic groups. The document damp exposes why Uhuru Kenyatta was retired from the Southern Sudan peace talks and why it was taken over by the Ethiopians as Uhuru was sent home to rest.

Okoth Osewe