The 4th annual .KE Registar Awards was held virtually on 2nd December 2020. This is an event that brings together all the .KE domain registrars together and is organized by KeNIC, the registry in charge of the .KE ccTLD. This year’s event had been postponed due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and was eventually held virtually.
In the awards, KeNIC CEO Joel Karubiu said that 2019 was a good year for KeNIC where 47k domain were registered, an improvement from the 39k domains that had been registered in 2018. Currently, the registry has already surpassed the 100k domain mark and prospects for 2020 seem to be even better.
The CEO also said that KeNIC has made a number of changes such as strengthening its governance by bringing more people into the Board. In addition, the support to the registrars has been improved and there are regular newsletters and webinars that are done by the registry.
Bob Ochieng’ who is the Stakeholder Engagement Senior Manager – Eastern & Southern Africa with ICANN talked about the resilience of the DNS during the pandemic, noting that this is something that had kept the world moving during the Pandemic. He said that KeNIC is a major stakeholder in keeping Kenyans online, and also noted that ccTLDs formed 7 out of 10 TLDs in the world, although none of these is from Africa. He argued that Africa needs to grow these numbers to strengthen its voice on the global scene.
Others present include Barrack Otieno – the General Manager Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD), KeNIC staff, Board members, registrars and other stakeholders who participated remotely.
Awards
Some of the awards given were:
.KE Registration award
Those nominated were the registrars with more than 2500 registrations during that period and were Truehost Cloud, Global Internet Fortunes, Safaricom, EAC Directory, Sasahost and Kenya Website Experts.
The winner for this award was Global Internet Fortunes with Kenya Website Experts as First runner’s up and Truehost Cloud as the second runners up.
Customer Support and Retention
For nomination to this category, a registrar needed to have more than 2000 domains, have a 24/7 customer support line, actively sends renewal notifications to clients, registered growth in the new registrations and renewal of domains, and has an automated domain renewal process.
The winner for this category was Kenya Website Experts with EAC Directory as first runners up and Sasahost as second runners up.
.KE Marketing award
Registrars were awarded for their marketing effort, which includes actively engaging with potential clients, running adverts, online marketing campaigns, direct sales and holding events to promote the .KE brand.
The winner for this category was deepAfrica with Kenyaweb.com as first runners up and Peak & Dale as second runners up.
New Registrar of the Year
This was for the new registrar who had been a member for at least six months and showed a remarkable growth.
Winner: HostPinnacle
Registrar of the Year
This was for the top registrar in sales who showed consistent growth with significant registration of new domains.
Winner: Global Internet Fortunes
