[kictanet] The KeNIC we want: Stakeholder engagement and Operations

Sat Oct 6 10:26:23 EAT 2018

Mwendwa and all

Let me make correction to an oft misunderstood concept of AGMs.

There is NOTHING like a private AGM. AGMs are supposed to give
Stakeholders/Shareholders a chance to hold Board Members accountable. The
fundamental question is this:-

If there is no AGM who holds the Directors accountable? This is an
important issue. If we take DRAKE for example. If the Director representing
DRAKE is deemed not to be representing the organization according to its
brief to her/him then they can exercise their vote to remove him from the
board of KeNIC. As it is this is not happening. So basically the Board of
KeNIC has been derelict in its fundamental role as a guardian of the
organization.

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

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

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

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.

On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 7:33 PM Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> I hear you Walu. Very sound arguments.
>
> There is one specific questions I wanted to get your view on; whether we
> should have an AGM in the first place (public or private). I'm still
> following up with the claim that no AGM has been held at KeNIC for 5 years
> or more. At least KeNIC could debunk this statement if they are responsive
> to community interests.
>
> Also Bwana Walu, private companies with private AGMs still publish annual
> reports. Is that so?
>
> On Fri, Oct 5, 2018, 5:48 PM John Walu <walu.john at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Public AGMs are more about the spirit of the Internet community/culture
>> than the letter of Memorandum of Articles.
>>
>> I am aware that a good number of African countries have their
>> National/Top level domain registry run as a private entities/NGOs and it
>> works. Indeed in Kenya, Dr. Shem Ochuodho & Randy Bush did the same for
>> .KE  for ten years before we opted to go the multi-stakeholder way through
>> a very long 10yr re-delagation process
>> <https://www.iana.org/reports/2002/ke-report-20dec02.html>.
>>
>> So the question is why would we adopt a multi-stakeholder governance
>> approach and then in practice prefer to be more like a private entity
>> (closed AGMs?).  You cant have your cake and eat it, the Englishman would
>> say.
>>
>> If we chose to be a private (cake) so be it, we can go ahead and be as
>> restrictive as is expected of private entities.  But if we chose the
>> multi-stakeholder approach (cake) we  should be ready go through with what
>> comes along with that - including often very noisy and public AGMs ;-)
>>
>> Do public AGMs  add value?
>>
>> I should think so. Even from a simple public awareness perspective, a
>> public AGM gives an opportunity for the next generation of ICT leaders to
>> begin to learn about the ecosystem.  It also gets the public to know their
>> Directors and perhaps more importantly, give Directors an opportunity to
>> share their vision for the future, while accounting for past to the wider
>> community.
>>
>> walu.
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 4:50 PM Mwendwa Kivuva <
>> Kivuva at transworldafrica.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Walu. Let me follow you up with these questions. What if the
>>> board feels the AGM should restricted? Would it be enough if board
>>> resolutions, minutes, and annual reports are availed online, but the AGM
>>> remains restricted? What about the allegations that there has never been an
>>> AGM for several years? Is that standard practice? Is it even necessary to
>>> hold the AGMs?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Friday, 5 October 2018, John Walu <walu.john at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> @Kivuva,
>>>>
>>>> I think that in whatever form and shape KENIC is, it should endeavour
>>>> to have an open AGM.  I used to sit on the Afrinic Board
>>>> <https://www.afrinic.net/> and legally speaking, their constitution
>>>> does not allow any Tom, Dick and Harry in their meetings, but in practice,
>>>> AfriNIC AGMs are open to pretty much to anyone who can afford to be present
>>>> in the room or online.
>>>>
>>>> Yes, most of the times we got hit, and hit badly from the floor, but at
>>>> the end of the day, it id help Afrinic move forward in terms of
>>>> accountability and transparency which is  a good thing for any public
>>>> interest entity.
>>>>
>>>> Anway, KENIC used to have open AGMs, so it should be quite easy to kick
>>>> that back in - if the directors so wish.
>>>>
>>>> my two Satoshis,
>>>>
>>>> walu.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 10:16 AM Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <
>>>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The debate on revitalising our .ke ccTLD registry continues today.
>>>>> Yesterday, we tackled Governance issues. Suggestions were made, the major
>>>>> ones dealing with Transparency at the .ke registry, and Equality on
>>>>> representation. Thank you for contributing, reading, and listening. Please
>>>>> feel free to continue contributing to that thread, as we go to the theme of
>>>>> the day.
>>>>>
>>>>> Today we will tackle Stakeholder Engagement and Operational Issues.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Public / Stakeholder Engagements
>>>>> 1. Should KeNIC hold Annual General Meetings? Is there value in
>>>>> holding the AGMs?
>>>>> 2. When was the last AGM held?
>>>>> 3. Can the annual reports, and deliberations of the AGMs be published
>>>>> on the KeNIC website?
>>>>> 4. Should the AGM be open to the public?
>>>>> 5. Accountability: How accountable is KeNIC? To whom does it account
>>>>> to?
>>>>>
>>>>> Operational Issues
>>>>> 1. A great effort has been made to popularise the .ke brand, including
>>>>> some popular advertisements, using patriotism to encourage Kenyans, and
>>>>> opening up the second level. But numbers don't lie. Currently, we are at
>>>>> around 80,000 .ke domains, while South Africa is at 1.3million. Is there
>>>>> more work that can be done to make .Ke popular?
>>>>> 2. What are the challenges in selling the .ke brand? What are the
>>>>> opportunities?
>>>>> 3. Is there a challenge in generating content for the KeNIC website?
>>>>> Some pages as noted yesterday have not been updated for some years now.
>>>>> 4. What support does KeNIC give to Registrars?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Here are some statistics that I had shared on Tuesday, that may help
>>>>> in stimulating the debate.
>>>>>
>>>>> Germany population 82.67 million
>>>>> .de domains: 16 million domains (one domain for every 5 people)
>>>>> Percentage Domain penetration: 19%
>>>>> .de is the third largest registry in the world and is ran by DENIC
>>>>> which is a non-regulated not-for-profit cooperative owned by registrars.
>>>>>
>>>>> South Africa Population 56 million
>>>>> .za domain: 1.3 million domains (one domain for every 46 people)
>>>>> Percentage Domain penetration: 2.3%
>>>>> .za is the largest ccTLD in Africa, managed and regulated by ZADNA
>>>>> which is an agency of South African government under the Department of
>>>>> Telecommunications and Postal Services.
>>>>>
>>>>> Kenya population 50 million
>>>>> .ke domain: 79,773 domains (one domain for every 627 people)
>>>>> Percentage Domain penetration: 0.16%
>>>>> .ke is managed by KeNIC which is envisioned as a Public Private
>>>>> Partnership (PPP) entity
>>>>>
>>>>> Looking forward to a fruitful debate.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> kictanet mailing list
>>>>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>>>>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>>>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet
>>>>> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
>>>>> Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke
>>>>>
>>>>> Unsubscribe or change your options at
>>>>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/walu.john%40gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder
>>>>> platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy
>>>>> and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>>>>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>>>>
>>>>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>>>>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>>>>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>>>>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ______________________
>>> Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
>>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwendwa-kivuva
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
> Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20181006/f6fdb213/attachment.htm>