Kenya Lost .africa. Here Is the Story The Citizen Kenya Left Out
Kenya already had a chance at an African domain. It did not end well. Read further.
The Citizen Kenya recently ran a piece encouraging ICANN’s 2026 gTLD round as an opportunity for Kenya to run custom web domains and strengthen its digital identity. Someone brought it to my attention.
What the article does not mention:
The ongoing costs are significant. And ICANN’s record on African applications shows that winning on paper does not guarantee a fair process.
The GAC can object to geographic strings, often for political reasons. Regular brands can face string similarity objections or any number of other challenges.
So before celebrating the process, ask: who can actually afford to play this financial and procedural minefield?
Kenya Already Had a Chance for a Big Win. It Was .africa.
For those who were not part of the African internet governance space at the time, here is what happened.
The last time a Kenya-based company applied to ICANN for an African domain, DotConnectAfrica (DCA) had secured a partnership with Safaricom to establish the registry infrastructure in Nairobi.
Kenya’s Minister of Information at the time, Hon. Samuel Poghisio, formally endorsed DCA’s .africa application.
The late Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom, publicly praised DCA’s decision to base the registry in Kenya.
DCA’s technical bid was backed by CentralNic, an ICANN-accredited registry provider. Our Chief Technology Officer at the time was Gavin Brown, who has since been recruited as ICANN’s Principal Engineer, the very institution that oversaw the .africa process and ultimately ruled against us.
The technical and financial case was never the problem. What followed was political interference, governments that chose connections over competence and backed a competing application despite the evidence on record.
Moreover, and to the surprise of all, Kenya’s GAC representative objected to DCA’s application at ICANN.
But that objection failed. DCA won the IRP. Yet, ICANN refused to follow the ruling. When DCA pursued the matter in court, ICANN successfully invoked judicial estoppel (a legal doctrine that prevents a party from taking a position inconsistent with one it previously held.
For the record the inconsistency was not taken by DCA nor its merit, rather by our Lawyers statment "... the IRP is their only recourse; no other remedy is available for applicants..." ).
This is what prevented the DCA merits from being fully litigated, a doctrine the first judge rejected, but a second judge contradicted. That is how teh .africa registry was awarded to a less qualified competing bidder.
The outcome and conflicts of interest embedded in that process are documented in full.
History is vindicating the position DCA held throughout.
The Pattern: Authority Without Understanding, Then and Now
THEN - The .africa Process
During the .africa process, a Kenyan GAC representative had already been replaced by the government before the Beijing meeting.
Yet the individual still sat in the room, spoke, and gathered support for an objection against DCA, while the position of the actual accredited Kenya representative was ignored.
Under deposition, former GAC Chair Heather Dryden later acknowledged that the process lacked transparency and fairness.
NOW - The Same Pattern Reappears
The same individual is now quoted in publications such as The Register UK and BTW.media as holding “senior positions at ICANN” while speaking on matters of CAIGA.
That framing is inaccurate. A GAC role is not the same as holding a senior ICANN position. GAC representatives are appointed by governments for specific mandates, often political in nature, and not necessarily for deep institutional or technical expertise.
During the CAIGA discussion on AFRINIC, this same individual claimed that Smart Africa controlled the election process.
Internet governance scholar Milton Mueller publicly corrected the claim, clarifying that AFRINIC members, not Smart Africa, controlled the election outcome.
Mueller argued that the real concern was institutional architecture, not ballot manipulation. The correction was publicly acknowledged and accepted.
THE MOST IMPORTANT STATEMENT
The same individual also later acknowledged publicly: “Many of us have performed roles that made this kind of capture work. I have recognised the pattern and my role in it.” - Former Kenya GAC Rep, 2012
WHY THIS MATTERS
That statement matters because what DCA experienced during the .africa process at the ICANN GAC and AUC level reflected precisely those dynamics.
DCA has been documenting these governance patterns since 2008.
Government-aligned and government-appointed do not automatically mean performance. We saw that with .africa.
THE BROADER ISSUE
This is not ultimately about one individual. It is about how authority is presented, repeated, and accepted without sufficient scrutiny — by institutions, media, and governance ecosystems alike.
The Bottom Line
ICANN’s 2026 gTLD round is not an opportunity for Kenya. It is a financial and procedural minefield for everyone. The GAC process has shown itself vulnerable to political capture. IRP wins can be ignored. Courts can close on technicalities. There is no real remedy.
Therefore, before The Citizen Kenya encourages others to apply, perhaps they could investigate why .africa never gained meaningful traction in Kenya despite local partnerships and ministerial endorsement.
That is not cynicism. It is institutional memory.
ICANN AfricanUnion WSIS Process United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa (UNCC-AA) CircleID The Africa Report Citizen Digital The Register BTW CIO Africa by dx5 Nations Media
#gTLD2026 #DigitalSovereignty #InternetGovernance #ICANNAccountability #AfricaTech #DotAfrica #Kenya
Source articles — The Citizen Kenya: https://citizen.digital/article/icann-launches-2026-gtld-round-opening-door-for-kenya-to-run-custom-web-domains-n382683
Safaricom and Fincom partnership — Kahawa Tungu, July 2012: https://kahawatungu.com/dca-partners-with-safaricom-and-fincom-to-set-up-dotafrica-registry-in-kenya/
10-Year .africa performance review and documented record: https://sophiabekele.com/did-the-auc-aligned-zacr-actuallydeliver-africa/
CAIGA Discussion on AFRINIC Governance — Milton Mueller Clarification (2025): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alice-munyua-9b76604_icann-fosters-some-not-so-smart-ideas-for-activity-7395909857901662208-KdvP