KENIC should work directly with the public

KENIC made a good decision in embarking on a marketing campaign for the .ke domain, but the administrator of the top-level domain needs to move beyond IT circles.

Though KENIC says that the cost of .ke is 2,000 shillings, the public is paying more than 5,000 for the domain only and more if it requires hosting. This defeats KENIC's lofty ideas.
How can the public buy more if they are being overcharged by registrars? Who is going to inform the public about the fees structure and ensure that they pay the right amounts?

In a country where techies are held up like thin gods and the tech world considered rocket science to the average Kenyan, KENIC and the marketing team need to do more than just deliberate.

To test the cost of the domain, I asked a techie to purchase for me, and he came back with this story of how it is expensive to buy .ke and that I cannot get it for less than 5k. Then he went on and on about the advantages and disadvantages of hosting locally and actually proposed that the best host is abroad. Well, that’s a story for another day.

I tried to explain that at least the cost should be 3 or 4k, but the guy won’t hear of it. It just left me wondering: What if this techie actually knew that the public knows the cost of a domain? Would he still behave that way?

Seems there is a lot to be done.