[kictanet] Breaking News: Kenyan Internet Community comes faceto face with new Legislation

Sat May 9 09:13:15 EAT 2009

The Kenic AGM was a very good platform to road-test the implication of the Kenya Communications amendment Act, and in my view it presented a great opportunity to the ICT stakeholders to articulate the pertinent issues that affect their areas of operation.

To a large extent, the lengthy debate, especially on the establishment of an SPV by Kenic for purposes of compliance with the law, showed that there are many concerns in the market place, which points to the existence of big opportunity and threat too.

The only certain thing about ICT is that its future is so dramatically dynamic, that before the ink dries, it is time to erase the sentence and write another one!!

A K Mugambi
Kenic Chairman  
Sent from my BlackBerry®

-----Original Message-----
From: Solomon Mburu <solo.mburu at gmail.com>

Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 03:09:32 
To: <amugambi at jambo.co.ke>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>; skunk<skunkworks at my.co.ke>; ke-users Internet Users<ke-internetusers at bdix.net>; afnog afnog<afnog at afnog.org>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Breaking News: Kenyan Internet Community comes face
	to face with new Legislation

Morning! I'Ve seen in today's Nation's editorial that the so called
media law is set to undergo some amendments. Could we, in the IT
sector, explore a way of injecting what suits us in such an opening
window?  Just my thoughts.

On 08/05/2009, Solomon Mburu <solo.mburu at gmail.com> wrote:
> Walu, I do concur with you, the heated debate today, means that the
> silence from the IT Sector on this regulation while the media was
> making noise is due to some intelligent fear, in my opinion.  Can
> KICTANET do some sort of advocacy on this crucial matter, whose
> outcomes  can be directed to KENIC for further direction and guidance.
> I see a conflict of interest emanating when CCK is given the mandate
> of awarding the TLDs by law. Time might get us with pants down,
> literary! Mburu
>
> On 08/05/2009, John Walubengo <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> Apologies for cross-posting:
>>
>> It took a KENIC (KEnya Network Information Center, www.kenic.or.ke)
>> Annual
>> General Meeting for the Kenyan Internet community to digest the
>> implication
>> of the a Kenyan ICT Legislation passed more than five months ago.  The
>> law
>> which included sections that touched on the Media, IT, Telecommunication
>> and
>> Postal Services has faced stiff resistance from the Media fraternity
>> while
>> the Internet Community kept a low if not a dead profile.
>>
>>
>>
>> It was at the KENIC general meeting held today in Nairobi that the
>> Internet
>> Community grappled with the implication of the IT section on the
>> operation
>> of the .KE namespace.  The law specifies that all second level .KE
>> internet
>> domain names must be licensed by the country's converged Regulator,
>> Communication Commission of Kenya.  The law requires that all Registries
>> -
>> those who manage the internet domains - must apply for a license by the
>> 2nd
>> of June 2009.
>>
>>
>>
>> KENIC, a public-private-partnership has under the ICANN Policies been
>> managing the .KE namespace including the 2nd level sub-domains such as
>> xyz.CO.KE, xyz.OR.KE, etc. From 2nd June 2009, KENIC must seek permission
>> from the Regulator to continue managing these sub-domains.  In an effort
>> to
>> comply with the law, the KENIC Board requested the community to support a
>> resolution that a new legal entity (Special Purpose Vehicle, SPV) be
>> created
>> in order to apply for the license from the Regulator as well as compete
>> with
>> other potential entities that are set to fight in that space.
>>
>>
>>
>> The proposals opened up heated discussions with some members wondering if
>> KENIC was ceding its hard-won rights & control over the .KE namespace to
>> an
>> exclusive and single entity.  The current governance structure for KENIC
>> provides for a Multistakeholder Partnership over the whole .KE namespace
>> and
>> has the Govt, Academia, Private Sector/Telcos and Civil Society Board
>> Representation that is wholly accountable to Internet Users during Annual
>> General Meetings.  Effectively, the new law takes part of this mandate
>> and
>> places it under one or two of these Stakeholders that is the
>> Regulator/Govt.
>>
>>
>>
>> Members wondered about the criteria that would be used by the Regulator
>> to
>> award the management licenses to various competitors. Others wondered
>> about
>> the potential conflict between the local legislation and the ICANN
>> policies
>> given that KENIC has currently been operating under ICANN policies but
>> now
>> has to take cognizance of the local law.  For example, if the Regulator
>> granted a license to someone else to manage the "co.ke" subdomain BUT the
>> local internet community for one reason or the other instructed the KENIC
>> Board NOT to accept and transfer the delegation from KENIC how would that
>> be
>> resolved? And yet other members wondered to what extend the proposed SPV
>> would cannibalize their existing markets and services.
>>
>>
>>
>> It has taken five months of silence but clearly, the Kenyan Internet
>> community is just beginning to understand and feel the heat of some
>> sections
>> in the ICT law that had previously been hijacked and labeled "Media law"
>> at
>> the expense of IT practitioners.  It will be interesting to see how this
>> plays out before and after the 2nd of June 2009 - the date when all
>> subdomain managers must be licensed by the Regulator.
>>
>>
>>
>> walu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all
> the same way to the side of a hill!
>

-- 
Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all
the same way to the side of a hill!

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