Listers
I feel that as a former board member I cannot let this news
report in the Business Daily go unanswered. In the interest of
balanced reporting allow me to state the following:
More Government involvement I guess is something that had
to happen. Not sure its necessarily a good thing.
The current board composition beyond what the Business
Daily reported is that Government has defacto 5 Board seats at
KeNIC - 3 from CCK - Lucky Waendi (who resigned almost
immediately after I did. The resignation of Lucky is telling
since it came after a month where her Directorship was
withdrawn by CCK only to be reinstated after the then
Chairperson of KeNIC, Alice Munyua was mandated by the full
board to seek audience with the CCK Ag DG to reconsider her
withdrawal as she provided valuably Company Secretarial
duties. Although this slot on the Board remains empty,
technically it can still be filled). The other directors
representing CCK at KeNIC are Michael Katundu and the Director
General. Government is also represented by someone from the
eGovernment Secretariat. In addition to the new appointment
from the Ministry of Information & Communication we now
have at least technically 5 Government Representatives on the
Board of KeNIC.
The other board members are from KIMA (Kenya Internet
Marketing Assiciation) which was represented by Moses Kemibaro
who has since resigned and not been replaced to date; Drake
which I served and resigned so that I can be replaced by
somebody else from Drake. For full disclosure the reason for
my resignation are two fold:-
1. The membership of Drake which is primarily made up of
Domain Registrars felt that I no longer represented their
interests therefore I felt that it was incumbent upon me to
resign and let fresh blood come in.
2. The board charter (at least up until when I resigned)
was clear that a board member can only serve two terms and
should then be replaced. I'm sure this is something that KeNIC
isn't fully implementing as there are Board Members who have
been serving since 2002/3. I felt that this may create a
positive precedence and allow for more transparency in the
circulation of board members going forward.
I also believe that there is at least one other board
member who we are not sure which organization he represents.
My humble opinion is that the issue is mainly one of
Corporate Governance. When an institution that was primarily
formed as a Multi-Stakeholder entity becomes embroiled in what
seems like Schizophrenic behavior you have a situation as we
do today. Why do I say this? You can't wake up one morning and
decide that because one Organization isn't registered then it
should loose its board seat while others whose registrations
haven't been completed still retain their seats. I'm referring
here to Drake & KIMA. It doesn't seat very well and smacks
of Double Standards.
The issues at KeNIC cannot be wished away ladies &
gentlemen. Packing it with more directors from
Government although will temporarily steady the ship moves
it away from being a Multi-stakeholder organization.
In a posting last month I intimated at the real
issues. Let me recap here the genesis of the problem as I
see it. I by no means have a monopoly of ideas on what the
real issues are but this is wholly my personal opinion and
observations during my time as a director at KeNIC.
Firstly there have been mainly two opposing
(sometimes 3) sides at the Board Level:-
1. Government Functionaries that would like KeNIC to
operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of CCK;
2. Private Sector types (then represented by myself
and Moses Kemibaro) who would like KeNIC to embrace more
private sector ethos;
3. And Not For Profit types who advocated a middle
ground...
With this kind of representation it was both a major
strength (when it worked) and at the same time a major
weakness) since some of us sometimes felt that the
bureaucracy was stifling the implementation of the Strategic
Plan. Case in point:- it took the Board more than six months
to approve the marketing plan!!
There were allegations that one of us at the board
level took to personally intimidate the staff to the extent
of being abusive. These allegations were never substantiated
but the fact that they were even raised is a major issue and
an indictment of the board's leadership.
Then there is the issue of the new ICT law that
requires KeNIC to be licensed by the CCK. I make two
observations here:-
1. Firstly that there has always been suspicion that
one of us at the board level used machiavelli type
manipulation to ensure that the bill drafting included a
clause that would make KeNIC a licensee of the CCK and
basically make the principle of Multi-Stakeholderism null
and void. In fact I can say here with total conviction that
this issue at some point totally paralysed us at the Board
Level and that TESPOK (then represented) by Sammy Buruchara
was vehemently and violently opposed to this clause to the
extent that he personally accused some board members
representing CCK with being behind this to ensure that they
control KeNIC. Board minutes will clearly attest to this.
2. Is it good practice to have a Licensor sit at an
organization that it licenses or is required by law to
license? This is the genesis of the issue that is facing us
today. CCK has 3 seats at KeNIC. It is not for me to judge
but for the community to do so.. The analogy here is whether
CCK should then also not have board representation at
Safaricom and Orange as these two organizations are still
partly owned by the people of Kenya and are at the same time
licensees of CCK.
By the way there is no right or wrong on how a ccTLD
is managed. There are various ways how countries do this.
The link below will provide listers with some perspective:
http://www.cctldinfo.com/home.php
The point I am making is that we must decide which way
we want KeNIC governed as this situation is getting out of
hand and intimating that there are no issues at KeNIC in my
opinion is being intellectually dishonest.
At this juncture I commend Dr.Ndemo for moving
swiftly to get more information at KeNIC by requesting a
board seat for the Min of Infocom. This will hopefully bring
to light the issues at hand and probably see KeNIC take its
rightful place in the InfoComm space in our beloved
country.
Interestingly I see parallels in the fight for
control of KeNIC and what is happening at the global level
with the ITRs, the forthcoming WCIT in Dubai and the fight
for control of ICANN.
Lastly I urge Alice to come forward and also say her
piece as the report in the Business Daily may not have fully
captured the situation.
I remain your servant
Ali Hussein
+254 773/713 601113
Sent from my iPhone®
The Ministry of Information and Communications is
seeking more seats on the board of the Kenya Network
Information Centre (Kenic), to help solve what it says
are problems at the domain registration firm.
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