[kictanet] Ministry seeks more seats at KENIC

Wed Aug 15 04:41:13 EAT 2012

Listers 

I feel that as a former board member I cannot let this news report in the Business Daily go unanswered. In the interest of balanced reporting allow me to state the following:

More Government involvement I guess is something that had to happen. Not sure its necessarily a good thing. 

The current board composition beyond what the Business Daily reported is that Government has defacto 5 Board seats at KeNIC - 3 from CCK - Lucky Waendi (who resigned almost immediately after I did. The resignation of Lucky is telling since it came after a month where her Directorship was withdrawn by CCK only to be reinstated after the then Chairperson of KeNIC, Alice Munyua was mandated by the full board to seek audience with the CCK Ag DG to reconsider her withdrawal as she provided valuably Company  Secretarial duties. Although this slot on the Board remains empty, technically it can still be filled). The other directors representing CCK at KeNIC are Michael Katundu and the Director General. Government is also represented by someone from the eGovernment Secretariat. In addition to the new appointment from the Ministry of Information & Communication we now have at least technically 5 Government Representatives on the Board of KeNIC. 

The other board members are from KIMA (Kenya Internet Marketing Assiciation) which was represented by Moses Kemibaro who has since resigned and not been replaced to date; Drake which I served and resigned so that I can be replaced by somebody else from Drake. For full disclosure the reason for my resignation are two fold:-

1. The membership of Drake which is primarily made up of Domain Registrars felt that I no longer represented their interests therefore I felt that it was incumbent upon me to resign and let fresh blood come in.

2. The board charter (at least up until when I resigned) was clear that a board member can only serve two terms and should then be replaced. I'm sure this is something that KeNIC isn't fully implementing as there are Board Members who have been serving since 2002/3. I felt that this may create a positive precedence and allow for more transparency in the circulation of board members going forward. 

I also believe that there is at least one other board member who we are not sure which organization he represents.

My humble opinion is that the issue is mainly one of Corporate Governance. When an institution that was primarily formed as a Multi-Stakeholder entity becomes embroiled in what seems like Schizophrenic behavior you have a situation as we do today. Why do I say this? You can't wake up one morning and decide that because one Organization isn't registered then it should loose its board seat while others whose registrations haven't been completed still retain their seats. I'm referring here to Drake & KIMA. It doesn't seat very well and smacks of Double Standards.   

The issues at KeNIC cannot be wished away ladies & gentlemen.  Packing it with more directors from Government although will temporarily steady the ship moves it away from being a Multi-stakeholder organization. 

In a posting last month I intimated at the real issues. Let me recap here the genesis of the problem as I see it. I by no means have a monopoly of ideas on what the real issues are but this is wholly my personal opinion and observations during my time as a director at KeNIC. 

Firstly there have been mainly two opposing (sometimes 3) sides at the Board Level:- 

1. Government Functionaries that would like KeNIC to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of CCK; 

2. Private Sector types (then represented by myself and Moses Kemibaro) who would like KeNIC to embrace more private sector ethos;

3. And Not For Profit types who advocated a middle ground...

With this kind of representation it was both a major strength (when it worked) and at the same time a major weakness) since some of us sometimes felt that the bureaucracy was stifling the implementation of the Strategic Plan. Case in point:- it took the Board more than six months to approve the marketing plan!! 

There were allegations that one of us at the board level took to personally intimidate the staff to the extent of being abusive. These allegations were never substantiated but the fact that they were even raised is a major issue and an indictment of the board's leadership. 

Then there is the issue of the new ICT law that requires KeNIC to be licensed by the CCK. I make two observations here:-

1. Firstly that there has always been suspicion that one of us at the board level used machiavelli type manipulation to ensure that the bill drafting included a clause that would make KeNIC a licensee of the CCK and basically make the principle of Multi-Stakeholderism null and void. In fact I can say here with total conviction that this issue at some point totally paralysed us at the Board Level and that TESPOK (then represented) by Sammy Buruchara was vehemently and violently opposed to this clause to the extent that he personally accused some board members representing CCK with being behind this to ensure that they control KeNIC. Board minutes will clearly attest to this.

2. Is it good practice to have a Licensor sit at an organization that it licenses or is required by law to license? This is the genesis of the issue that is facing us today. CCK has 3 seats at KeNIC. It is not for me to judge but for the community to do so.. The analogy here is whether CCK should then also not have board representation at Safaricom and Orange as these two organizations are  still partly owned by the people of Kenya and are at the same time licensees of CCK. 

By the way there is no right or wrong on how a ccTLD is managed. There are various ways how countries do this. The link below will provide listers with some perspective:

http://www.cctldinfo.com/home.php

The point I am making is that we must decide which way we want KeNIC governed as this situation is getting out of hand and intimating that there are no issues at KeNIC in my opinion is being intellectually dishonest.

At this juncture I commend Dr.Ndemo for moving swiftly to get more information at KeNIC by requesting a board seat for the Min of Infocom. This will hopefully bring to light the issues at hand and probably see KeNIC take its rightful place in the InfoComm space in our beloved country. 

Interestingly I see parallels in the fight for control of KeNIC and what is happening at the global level with the ITRs, the forthcoming WCIT in Dubai  and the fight for control of ICANN.

Lastly I urge Alice to come forward and also say her piece as the report in the Business Daily may not have fully captured the situation. 

I remain your servant 

Ali Hussein

+254 773/713 601113

Sent from my iPhone®

On Aug 14, 2012, at 1:30 AM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
> The Ministry of Information and Communications is seeking more seats on the board of the Kenya Network Information Centre (Kenic), to help solve what it says are problems at the domain registration firm. 
> 
> http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Ministry+seeks+more+seats+on+Internet+firm+board+/-/539550/1478442/-/item/1/-/holrre/-/index.html
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