[kictanet] WHO NEEDS THE ITU WHEN WE HAVE THE GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee at ICANN) & KENYA'S SHENANIGANS AT ICANN 46

Thu Apr 18 16:15:33 EAT 2013

Listers

For those who followed the goings on at ICANN 46 in Beijing there seems to
be a concerted effort from Governments worldwide to endanger the freedoms
we have enjoyed on the internet.

See GAC communique attached.

While I applaud the GAC for having reached consensus to object to two
applications, one of them dot Connect Africa, my personal opinion is that
the same (in my opinion) retrogressive elements who derailed WCIT12 are at
play again with some GAC members trying to introduce/recommend to ICANN a
complete redesign of the underlying policies for approving new top level
domains.

To quote from the article below (see link)

*'The GAC has interpreted the task of providing advice on public policy as
a mandate to start from scratch and revisit every policy issue related to
the use of domain names that has been debated since 1999. Six years of work
by the Generic Names Supporting Organization, which is supposed to develop
policy, has been ignored.'
*
http://www.internetgovernance.org/2013/04/11/who-needs-the-itu-when-you-have-a-gac/

I understand though that various ICANN constituents requested that the GAC
advice on safeguards be put under public comment and I think this will be a
good thing in protecting the multistakeholder model of policy making at
ICANN.

But all the same, what should we make of this? Is the Multi-Stakeholder
model under attack? As it was in Kenya during deliberations towards WCIT12
in Dubai?

And what is Kenya's position on the safeguards?

Can the new Kenya GAC Rep please enlighten us?

Talking of the Kenya GAC Rep, we understand there have been some very
embarrassing situations where he contradicted the Kenya Government Stand on
the African Union Commission (AUC) .Africa gTLD application. He is
purported to have supported a competing application from DotConnectAfrica
(DCA) against the AUC application which is supported by African countries
including Kenya. See attached letter from our former Minister of
Information, Mr. S. Poghisio.

By the way, how is the Kenya GAC Rep appointed?  We had Alice Munyua and
Michael Katundu  and then now it seems there is Sammy Buruchara who was
recently appointed to apparently replace Alice Munyua, whose term was
ending after the Beijing meeting having been the vice chair of the GAC.
This is a terrible mess that points us as amateurs without an inkling of
where our heads are at..

The link below paints a sorry picture of a country at odds with itself. The
gist of the matter is this:-

http://tandaabiashara.com/icann-gac-ignores-kenya-advice-on-dotconnectafrica-dotafrica-application/

Who should we believe? Michael Katundu and Sammy Buruchara or the former
minister of information who attended the African Union Ministerial summit
in Abuja and other summits which clearly mandated AUC to initiate the
process to acquire the dot AFrica TLD. The Minister had following these
summits sent a clear message to ICANN regarding Kenya's support for the AUC
application for .Africa (see letter attached) and there is also our former
President who attended the African Union Heads of State summit that yet
again mandated the African Union Commission to pursue and implement an
Africa TLD.

Listers, I invite you to make your own conclusions based on the evidence
and documentation attached and linked to this posting. The link below is
telling:-

http://tandaabiashara.com/icann-gac-ignores-kenya-advice-on-dotconnectafrica-dotafrica-application/

Note that on this link DCA also claims to have an endorsement letter from
the same minister. What a mess!

 [image: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif]I make a
personal appeal to Dr. Ndemo to right this situation quickly as we risk the
good name of our country.

This is serious as it paints the country in very bad light in the
international community and needs to be put to a stop. Should Kenya's
Representative be going against government positions? Were they briefed
regarding the government position on the AUC dot Africa application?

Lastly listers this also begs a question that has been burning me for a
while:-

Who is responsible for Policy Formulation in the ICT Space? Is the CCK or
the Wider Government through the Ministry of Infocom?  It is important that
we interrogate this issue since we are seeing a slow creep of CCK
Apparatchik in policy processes and engagement as opposed to regulation,
enforcement and enablement. If this is the case then it needs to be very
clearly mandated through new law. Or am I missing something? I stand
corrected though if I am wrong in my assumptions.

We are leader in Africa in this space and we must act the part. We
shouldn't be seen to stumble and look like fumbling teenagers when it comes
to our engagement in international fora. The Kenyan Private Sector,
Non-Profits and Government must be seen to move in tandem like a well-oiled
machine. We should strive to avoid another disaster like WCIT12 and now our
GAC involvement in ICANN 46, Beijing.

*Ali Hussein*

*CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd*

*Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd
*

Tel: +254713601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
organizations that I work with.
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