Kenya ccTLD .ke; Ochuodho and Bush to KENIC

It is almost 17 years since the .ke country code top level domain was registered. This period spans the introduction of the Internet to Kenya, the painful Moi era days when Jambonet was the only legal international Internet gateway to the present day with 3 international fiber optic links, 3G mobile networks, WiMAX networks, and great promise on affordable broadband Internet. This article looks back and highlights 10 things that you probably did not know about the .ke domain.

Two man show

.ke the Kenya ccTLD was registered on April 29, 1993. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) requested Dr. Shem J. Ochuodho, who was then working at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Nairobi, to be the administrative contact. Randy Bush based in USA was assigned the role of technical contact.

KENIC and redelegation of .ke
On December 20, 2002 ICANN redelegated .ke from Dr. Shem Ochuodho to the newly formed organization Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC); a collaboration between the Kenyan government and private sector . Strangely ICANN retained Randy Bush as the technical contact but after the redelegation he stopped managing the .ke ccTLD.

Whilst Dr. Ochuodho had initially been listed as the only individual member of KENIC in the draft KENIC Articles of Memorandum his name was dropped following the acrimonious process of the redelegation. He however did attended one KENIC board meeting on June 29, 2005.

KENIC Board Membership
The composition of the membership of KENIC has changed 4 times since KENIC was incorporated on October 26, 2002. The current membership is;

• Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) 3 members;
• Kenya Education Network Trust (KENET) 1 member;
• Government of Kenya e-government department 1 member;
• Telecommunication Service Providers Association of Kenya (TESPOK) 1member;
• Kenya Information and Communication Technology Federation (KIF) 1 member;
• Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANET) 1 member;
• Domain Registrars Association of Kenya (DRAKE) 1 member;
• Kenya Internet Marketing Association (KIMA) 1 member; and
• Outgoing chairperson (Remains on the Board in an ex-officio capacity for a period of one year)

Organizations that were at one time represented on the KENIC board include;

• The Computer Society of Kenya (CSK);
• East African Internet Association (EAIA);
• Telkom Kenya Limited (TKL);
• National Task Force on E-Commerce (NTF ecom);
• Ministry of Finance (Directorate of IT Services); and
• Kenya Information Society (KIS)

Registry Software; From Brazil to New Zealand
From 2003 to 2009 the .ke registry was run on Brazilian software. The software was established in 1997 by Fredenic Nevz and used by the registry managing the Brazilian ccTLD. Representatives of KENIC heard about the software during the Africa top level domains (AFTLD) meeting in Lome, Togo and were very impressed with it.

On 28th December 2009 KENIC launched a new registry system for the registration and management of dot Ke domain names. According to the Joe Kiragu, KENIC Administrative Manager, this software was developed by the New Zealand-based Council of Country Code Administrators (CoCCA) but the front-end has been customized by a local software development company.

Fees for .ke domain names
There are three price levels for the .ke domains;

• KES 500 ($6.50 USD) - me.ke and go.ke, ac.ke and sc.ke the later three are restricted and require supporting documents.
• KES 1,000 ($13.00 USD) - mobi.ke and info.ke
• KES 2,000 ($26.00 USD) - ne.ke, or.ke, and co.ke

Please note that the domains are sold by the 130 plus KENIC registrars who add a mark up for offering the service. The domains also attract a value added tax (VAT).

Number of domain names registered
By March 31, 2010 a cumulative total of 12,313 .ke domains have been registered.

• co.ke – 10,939
• or.ke – 707
• ac.ke - 278
• go.ke – 263
• me.ke - 37
• sc.ke – 31
• ne.ke – 25
• info.ke – 20
• mobi.ke – 13

Between 1993 and 2002 Dr. Ochuodho and Bush had registered approximately 2,000 domains. KENIC has therefore registered a cummulative total of 10,000 domains in 8 years.

KENIC Staff and Finances
KENIC has between 4 and 6 full time employees and has had 3 Administrative Managers between 2003 and 2009; Michuki Mwangi, Vincent Ngundi and Joseph Kiragu.

According to the 2007/2008 financial report, the KENIC income was KES 15 million. An impressive growth from KES 4 million in 2003. This revenue is primarily from registration of domains. The expenses in 2007/8 were KES 9.5 million.

Attendance by Board Members

According to the records of the 22 KENIC board meetings, and the 7 meetings leading to the registration of KENIC, that are available in the public domain. 48 people have attended the KENIC board meetings. The most active board members have been;

• Michael Katundu (CCK) has attended a record 25 times;
• Richard Bell (TESPOK), the first Chairman who attended 14 board meetings;
• Victor Kyalo (KENET), the second Chairman 11,
• Lucky Waindi-Kulecho (CCK) 10;
• Charles Nduati (CSK/KIF) 10;

13 people have represented CCK for a cumulative of 69 attendances; more than a 1/3 of the total attendance. Amazing that all 4 CCK Director Generals found time the time to attend KENIC board meetings; John Waweru attended 4 meetings. The present DG, Charles J.K. Njoroge attended before he became DG. Guess it’s not too difficult because the majority of the meetings have been at the CCK board room.

Control by CCK

• Convened the process of registration of KENIC and provided legal counsel;
• In the initial KENIC Articles of Memorandum, article No 6 Winding Up, states that “On dissolution of the company the right to administer the .ke ccTLD must be transferred to Communications Commission of Kenya”;
• On behalf of the Government of Kenya offered initial funding of KES 8.76 million ($110,000 USD);
• Offered office space and continues to do so to the present day;
• Has an MOU with KENIC;
• Has an allocation of 3 representatives to the KENIC board; and
• Further after the commencement of the Kenya Communications (Ammendment) Act 2009 on Kanuary 2 2009, CCK has additional legal oversight of the .ke ccTLD

Governance; Tangled mess and cross representation
The primary role of CCK is to provide regulation of the information and communications sector in Kenya. It is baffling that it is so involved in the operations of KENIC, to the extent of being represented by three people in the KENIC board. Perhaps with the implementation of the Kenya Communications (Ammendment) Act 2009 it will withdraw into a regulatory role as opposed to implementing role.
Further the CCK DG is a trustee of KENET; one of the next two most active organizations on the KENIC board.
The KICTANET representative at KENIC is also a Director at CCK.
There are a number of KENIC registrars whose owners or employees also serve on the board of KENIC. This in my opinion presents a conflict of interests.