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The number of registered Kenyan domains increased by six percent last year to 100,420, marking the first jump after a declining trend. Registration rose from 94,526 in 2021, latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows.
The registrations have recorded a steady growth since 2018 when they stood at 85,744, before touching the peak of 101,123 registrations in 2020 at a time when businesses shifted to digital platforms in the wake of Covid-19’s restrictions. But the numbers dipped in 2021 before the current rebound.
Last year, companies recorded the highest number of applications at 90,000 followed by not-for-profit organisations (1,846), personal websites (1,325), institutions of higher learning (1,079) and lower and middle institutions of learning (931).
Others included government entities (656), blogs (131), network devices (48) and mobile content (32).
“The number of registered Kenyan domains in 2022 rose to 100,420 from 94,526 in 2021. The me.ke domain intended for personal websites and emails, increased at the fastest rate to 1,325 in 2022 from 298 in 2021,” said KNBS in its 2023 edition of the Economic Survey.
“Domain renewal fees remained constant at Sh700 while the number of registrars decreased to 183 in 2022 from 194 in 2021.”
Geoffrey Shimanyula, chairman of Kenya Network Information Centre, which is the agency that handles registrations and issuance of the dot ke domain, said the apparent slow uptake is anchored on a tendency by users to register for short-term use then discard after the purpose ends.
“It’s not that we haven’t grown, what does happen in this business is that people register a domain name for a specific purpose and when that purpose ends, they forget about it. So our biggest challenge has been to renew these domains,” he said.