The Government of Kenya, with support from the World Bank, has begun plans to acquire advanced cybersecurity tools to strengthen its national digital defences following a wave of cyberattacks on key government systems. According to procurement documents signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA), Mr. Stanley Kamanguya, the new tools will help secure digital platforms that store sensitive information and offer public services.
This move is part of the Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project, funded by the World Bank. The new system will include six high-performance internet perimeter firewalls, two internal demilitarized zone (DMZ) units, and two centralized firewall management appliances. These tools are expected to form the core of a new digital defence framework to protect national databases, government portals, and other public ICT infrastructure.
The procurement contract, worth hundreds of millions of shillings, comes after several breaches exposed the vulnerabilities of Kenya’s digital systems. One of the most recent incidents involved a Moldovan company, B2bhint, which successfully extracted sensitive shareholder data from the Business Registration Service (BRS). That attack sparked widespread concern about the safety of personal and corporate information stored by the government.
The BRS attack followed earlier breaches, including the compromise of the Micro and Small Enterprise Authority (MSEA) and the disruption of the popular eCitizen platform in 2023. The eCitizen platform, which hosts services like passport applications, business registration, and tax filings, was reportedly brought down by a hacker group known as “Anonymous Sudan.”
The ICT Authority says that the upcoming cybersecurity tools will be capable of detecting, filtering, and blocking digital threats across government networks. The perimeter firewalls will act as the first line of defence by stopping suspicious traffic from reaching the core systems. Meanwhile, the internal DMZ units will safeguard interactions between sensitive systems inside the government’s digital ecosystem. A central monitoring platform will tie all the systems together, collecting real-time data and issuing alerts when threats are detected.
Cyberattacks in Kenya have been rising sharply. In 2024 alone, reported cyber threats nearly doubled to 3.5 billion cases. System vulnerabilities were responsible for about 3.27 billion of those incidents, while web attacks increased dramatically—from 386,067 to 8.4 million. Security experts have also raised alarms over the appearance of new threats, such as brute-force hacking, mobile application attacks, and complex malware.
The sharp increase in threats is largely driven by the widespread use of smartphones, growing internet coverage, and digital adoption in public services. As more Kenyans rely on online platforms for essential services, the digital landscape becomes a more attractive target for hackers and cybercriminals.
However, while the new firewalls and monitoring systems promise to improve national digital security, they have also raised privacy concerns. Experts say that advanced firewalls do more than block cyber threats—they can also track, log, and analyze internet activities. If misused, these tools could allow the government to monitor online behaviour and access sensitive communications of citizens.
There are fears that such systems, especially when combined with identity-based platforms like eCitizen, could lead to mass surveillance. With the ability to trace digital footprints back to individual users, some civil rights groups have warned that the tools may be misused to monitor critics, journalists, or opposition voices under the guise of cybersecurity.
In response to these concerns, the Kenyan government last year set up a cybersecurity reform taskforce. This group was mandated to advise on the ethical use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, and to review existing laws to ensure they protect citizens’ rights and data privacy.
The government has not yet disclosed the full details of how the firewall systems will be managed or who will have access to the surveillance data. ICTA, however, insists that the system is being deployed solely for national security and digital safety purposes.
Kenya’s digital transformation has been one of the most rapid in Africa, but it has come with major risks. As digital platforms continue to expand in scope and reach, the pressure to strike a balance between national security and the protection of citizens’ privacy is increasing.
The deployment of these tools will mark a significant step forward in Kenya’s cyber defence, but it also signals the need for stronger oversight and transparency to prevent abuse of power and to ensure that digital tools are not weaponized against the public.
