By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Chinese embassy in Kenya has denied reports that Beijing had carried out a cyber attack on the government of Kenya to assess its capacity to repay loans from China.
The embassy describes the report by Reuters as “nonsense”, stating that hacking is a global challenge which China is equally a victim of.
Reuters news agency had accused China of hacking key state agencies in the capital, Nairobi, including the presidency.
This according to Reuters was done to assess whether the East Africa nation has ability to service billions of dollars owed to Beijing in loans.
Reuters alleged that the years-long cyber-attacks started in 2019, when the Chinese started closing credit windows to Kenya as debt burdens started showing.
Denying the report 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.
The embassy says it is a highly sensitive political issue to blame a certain government for a cyber-attack without providing evidence to back-up such claims.
It says the ties between Kenya and China are founded on mutual respect.
“China and Kenya are good friends, good partners, and good brothers,” the embassy spokesperson said.
Kenya has reportedly cut borrowing from China.
As of March, Nairobi owed the south-eastern Asian country a whopping sum of $6.31bn (£5.8bn).
