Uhuru's CS takes action against Chinese company said to be spying on Kenyans

Miriam Mwende 16:06 - 20 December 2018

President Uhuru Kenyatta with First Lady Margaret Kenyatta during a past visit to China (twitter)

<strong>The CS is worried about phones made by the companies</strong>

ICT cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru on Thursday sounded an alarm on the Huawei and ZTE make of phones being sold in Kenya.

CS Mucheru asked Kenya's ICT and security authorities to investigate claims that the Chinese manufacturers are using their handsets to spy on the users.

The CS expressed worry that the phones being sold in the African continent were all compromised.

Interior CS Fred Matiang'i and ICT CS Joe Mucheru. Government takes action after M-Pesa outage

Interior CS Fred Matiang'i and ICT CS Joe Mucheru who has raised concerns with Huawei products

Global Security Concern

The Huawei brand of phones has been banned in a number of countries in Europe and the United States over the company's connection to the Chinese government.

Six heads of intelligence in the US advised Americans not to use products form the company raising an issue with the relationship between the company's founder Ren Zhengfei and the government of China.

"We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks," the FBI Director Chris Wray said in February.