Economy

Kenya domain registration up 5.8pc, hits record high

Friday September 22 2023

Geoffrey Shimanyula, chairman of Kenya Network Information Centre during the interview in Lavington on January 18, 2023. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NMG

The number of registered Kenyan domains rose by 5,702 in the 12 months to June this year, pointing to a rebound of enterprise that is reversing a decline that was triggered by the Covid-19 scourge.

The latest data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that the number of listed local domains grew to an all-time high of 103,298 as of June this year up from the 97,596 recorded in the same month last year, translating to a 5.8 percent rise.

Read: Local web domain prone to cyber-attacks, says CA

Data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in May showed that registrations had recorded a steady growth since 2018 when they stood at 85,744, before hitting a high of 101,123 in 2020 when companies embraced digital platforms in the wake of Covid-19’s restrictions on movement.

But the numbers dipped in 2021 before the current rebound.

During the year to June 2023, companies recorded the highest number of applications at 90,868 followed by second-level users (4,717), personal websites (2,697), not-for-profit organisations (1,975), institutions of higher learning (1,111) and lower and middle-level institutions (1,019).

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Others were government entities (696), blogs (137), network devices (47) as well as mobile content (31).

Mr Geoffrey Shimanyula, chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC), which is the agency that handles registrations and issuance of the dot ke domain, told the Business Daily in a past interview that the seemingly sluggish nature of uptake is anchored on a tendency by users to register for short-term use then discard after the purpose ends.

Read: KeNIC appoints new CEO to drive .ke domain uptake

The domain is available for use in variants known as second-level names that include .co.ke for companies, .ac.ke (higher learning institutions), .sc.ke (lower and middle colleges), .or.ke (non-profit organisations), .me.ke (personal names), .mobi.ke (mobile content), .go.ke (government agencies), .info.ke (information), and .ne.ke for network devices.

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