5.8% Increase in Kenyan Domain Registration

In the year leading up to June of this year, there were 5,702 more Kenyan domain registrations, indicating a recovery in business that is reversing a slump brought on by the Covid-19 scourge.

According to the most recent data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), there were 103,298 listed local domains as of June this year, a 5.8 percent increase from the 97,596 recorded in the same month previous year.

According to data provided by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in May, registrations increased steadily from 2018 when they stood at 85,744 until they reached a peak of 101,123 in 2020 as businesses adopted digital platforms in response to Covid-19’s movement restrictions. However, until the current comeback, the numbers fell in 2021.

Companies reported 90,868 applications during the year ending in June 2023, followed by second-level users (4,717), personal websites (2,697), not-for-profit organizations (1,975), higher education institutions (1,111), and lower and middle-level institutions (1,019).

In addition, there were 696 government entities, 137 blogs, 47 network devices, and 31 mobile content items.

In a previous interview with a local daily, Mr. Geoffrey Shimanyula, chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC), the organization in charge of registration and issuance of the dot ke domain, explained that the apparent sluggish nature of uptake is rooted in users’ propensity to register for brief use before discarding after the purpose is served.

The domain is accessible in second-level name variations such as.co.ke for businesses,.ac.ke for higher education institutions,.sc.ke for lower and middle colleges,.or.ke for non-profit organizations,.me.ke for individual names,.mobi.ke for mobile content,.go.ke for governmental organizations,.info.ke for information, and.ne.ke for network devices.