Wikileaks site erased and shut after attacks

Kenyans may now never know the exact details of the leaked cables on the country’s leadership after the Wikileaks website was attacked and erased.

The Domain Name Servers of Wikileaks.org and Cablegate.org were erased which blocked access to the websites. And in Nairobi, the ministry of foreign affairs said they were yet to receive any of the cables.

Head of African and Africa Union division Mr Michael Oyugi told the Saturday Nation: “We have not got anything yet. We have only picked what we see in the media”.

Acting Permanent Secretary Patrick Wamoto on Wednesday said Kenya’s Washington mission had been put on alert to monitor the leaks.

Confidential documents

Wikileaks has 1,821 cables on Kenya covering 1996 to February this year.

US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Johnny Carson telephoned Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday to alert the government over the imminent publication of the leaked confidential documents.

And US ambassador Michael Rannerberger also told the press on Wednesday that he had also called acting foreign affairs minister George Saitoti to express regrets over the leak.

Wikileaks had published over 450 documents before its Domain Name Servers were erased.

Users typing www.wikileaks.org received a blank page. “We are currently under another distributed denial of service attack,” Wikileaks said on its official Twitter feed on Friday.

Kenya and the US have expressed the hope the leaked documents will not hurt diplomatic relations between the two countries.