The Kenyan military will now play a more critical role in enhancing cyber security after it emerged that Kenya has lost a whopping Sh21 billion to hackers.

Defence Cabinet Secretary Raycheal Omamo stated that the government would now place more emphasis on cyber security.

Omamo spoke on Tuesday during the release of the Serianu 2017 state of cyber security report.

According to the report, banks were leading in losses linked to cyber attacks (Sh7 billion), followed by government and telcos at Sh5 billion and Sh3 billion respectively.

In 2016, Kenyan organisations had lost a combined Sh8.5 billion.

“We need to deal with cyber threats in the same way as we deal with diseases e.g. malaria and do things. Technology can be a course for different threats and we need to defend ourselves."

“The government’s mission is to engage all stakeholders to promote awareness and collaboration including through public private partnerships," Omamo stated.

Among the ways hackers have used to defraud Kenyans include fake news, ransomware, cyber-bullying, online-based pyramid schemes and phising.