A popular Kenyan website asking a simple question, ‘Is Uhuru In Kenya?’, went offline on 7th December. The website, isuhuruinkenya.co.ke, was set to display a YES when President Uhuru Kenyatta was in Kenya, and a NO when he was abroad.
The domain is registered to Brian Maiyo, a coder with a preference for Python and WebM.
Just confirmed that government shut down https://t.co/df4aDUrXZH . The government of Kenya has told me to go pick a letter. #UhuruInKenya
— Kabete 毛辰良 (@kipropesque) December 7, 2015
The site went live on 4th December, and was shut down at 6am on 7th December. During its brief time online, the site got close to 20,000 hits, most of them from mobile devices.
Some stats from the site 19,384 hits, most of it from mobile devices. pic.twitter.com/Riqf8nLf6V
— Kabete 毛辰良 (@kipropesque) December 7, 2015
Brian confirmed that the site and domain were intact, but the name server, which is where the domain name is stored, is currently unavailable.
The site itself is OK, the domain is OK, everything is OK, except for the domain nameserver.
— Kabete 毛辰良 (@kipropesque) December 7, 2015
According to Brian, the domain takedown was done without notice.
Registrars can just yank your site out if a complaint is filed by GOK. Is there no due process to check if the complaint is valid or not?
— Kabete 毛辰良 (@kipropesque) December 7, 2015
Following the disappearance of the website, Kenya’s domain registry Kenic experienced an outage on its WhoIs server on Monday, affecting websites using the .co.ke top level domain.
Kenic WHOIS database is down and it is the reason why when you do the search for https://t.co/l73OAwaxI7 , you find that it is available
— Kachwanya (@kachwanya) December 7, 2015
Kenic confirmed that the isuhuruinkenya.co.ke domain is still active, but the site remains unavailable.
Kindly note that we did not take the https://t.co/LANryfiR7D domain down at all.The domain is still active.
— KeNIC TLD (@KenicTLD) December 7, 2015
We value our clients confidentiality and will not pull down a domain without following procedure. #WeDintDelete #isuhuruinkenya.co.ke
— KeNIC TLD (@KenicTLD) December 7, 2015
However, many sites on the .ke top level domain could not display their WhoIs information, which contains the identity of the website owner.
https://twitter.com/njooro/status/673924840991100928
Kenic has been running a promotion dubbed Najivunia Kuwa .ke (I’m proud to be dot.ke), aimed at increasing uptake of the domain with discounted rates for new domain registrations.
A Kenic representative speaking to Techweez noted that it only deals with domain registration, but they acknowledged that the website was taken down. The representative further added that the website portrayed the President in a negative context, which is why it was taken down.
Kenyatta’s frequent foreign travels cost the country 2.1 billion shillings in the two years that he has been president. His return from a trip that took him to Malta, France and South Africa triggered a hashtag, #UhuruInKenya, which trended for the better part of Monday.
President Kenyatta has made more foreign trips than Kibaki did in 10 years #UhuruInKenya https://t.co/7w8CxhBmIf
— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) December 6, 2015
Owners of Kenyan domains were rightly worried by this move, with some noting that the Government could apply pressure on online activists and take their websites down with no notice. This move has serious implications on Kenya’s Freedom of Expression online, and websites whose content may be deemed subversive could opt to ditch the .ke TLD entirely.
If you are a Kenyan Blogger or activist, get a .co.ke domain at your own risk. @KenicTLD will bring you down due to pressure! #ifreeKe
— Njeri wa Wangarĩ (@Kenyanpoet) December 7, 2015
UPDATE: The site has since gone back up.
The site https://t.co/df4aDUrXZH is back in operation. Thank you for the support guys.
— Kabete 毛辰良 (@kipropesque) December 8, 2015
