By Joshua Cheloti

ICT Chief Administrative Secretary Dennis Itumbi has regained access to his Twitter account.

The account has been under the control of hackers since late Mach 2023.

Sharing news of regaining control of the account, the CAS said he had managed to ‘beat the hackers’.

He further revealed that he had planted a “flag of victory on their territory and that they would struggle to be back”.

“I just beat the Hackers – They managed to lock me out for a while. I planted a flag of victory on their territory too. They will struggle to be back. Goodnight people,” Itumbi tweeted, using his verified handle.

Itumbi’s Twitter handle with over 2.1 million followers had been taken over by what is believed to be cryptocurrency hackers.

The account is usually active but since it was hacked, it had few or no activities.

His last tweet was posted on March 21, 2023, before the hackers managed to take control.

Days after the account was hacked, Itumbi revealed that they had also tried to get into other social media pages.

“…they tried my email, Instagram and FaceBook too, but I got them before they could. Brutal welcome and a clear message on Cyber Security,” the ICT CAS said in a statement.

“For now Hackers 1 – Itumbi 0. In the fullness of time, that score will be something else…” he added.

Dennis Itumbi is a digital strategist who played a key role in Kenya Kwanza’s 2022 election campaigns.

He has a huge following not only on Twitter but also Facebook.

Before he was appointed CAS, Itumbi used to share details of secret meetings and happenings, especially related to politicians and leaders allied to the Azimio coalition.

The details were periodically shared under the tag Hustlers National Intelligence Bureau (HNIB).

This is not the first time Itumbi was a target of hackers.

After the 2022 general election, it emerged that Israeli hackers were able to access emails and private chats belonging to two of President William Ruto’s top aides – Itumbi being one of them.

The other aide who was hacked was the now Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir.

But in an interview with National early this year, the digital strategist said they outsmarted the hackers.

“I noticed increased activity on my Telegram account. The pattern showed that it was our competitors behind it. So we formed a few political groups and used them to mislead the hackers. It was clear in my mind that those interested in the information were working for our competitors,” he said.