China’s embassy in Kenya has refuted claims made in a Reuters news report that Chinese hackers attacked important governmental institutions in Nairobi, the country’s capital, including the president.
According to reports, this was done to see whether the country of East Africa would pay billions of dollars owing to Beijing.
The lengthy cyberattacks, which have reportedly lasted for years, began in 2019, when Kenya’s debt problems caused the Chinese to begin shutting off loans to the country.
However, in a tweet on Wednesday, the Chinese embassy said the report was “far-fetched and sheer nonsense”.
“Hacking is a common threat to all countries and China is also a victim of cyber-attack,” it added.
According to the embassy, it is a very delicate political matter to accuse a particular administration of a cyberattack in the absence of concrete proof.
It claims that mutual respect is the basis of the relationships between Kenya and China.
“China and Kenya are good friends, good partners, and good brothers,” the embassy spokesperson said.
Reportedly, Kenya has reduced its borrowing from China. It owed the government in south-east Asia $6.31 billion (£5.8 billion) as of March.
