Kenya will host the next round of the African Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meetings to be held between March 7 -12 2010.
The meetings will be held under the auspice of the Kenya Network Information Centre or KENIC at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
1500 delegates are expected to attend the Nairobi forum.
During the duration of the meeting 2 million visitors are also expected to arrive in Kenya as tourists thus boosting the economy of the country.
Within Africa ICANN has held meetings in Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and South Africa. Other countries who submitted similar bids for the March 2010 meeting are Nigeria and Namibia.
The ICANN is a firm responsible for coordinating the management of the technical elements of the internet to ensure universal resolvability so that all users of the internet can find all valid addresses.
It is also involved in awareness of management of cyber security and crime, privacy, cyber squatting, intellectual property rights, electronic commerce and local or relevant content. It uses unique technical identifiers like .KE, UK, COM. and INFO.
Kenya internet community was born through a broad- based consultive process of the local internet community with an aim to institute a non profit organization to operate and manage internet, resources allocation and registration services to assist in the development and growth of internet in Kenya.
Meanwhile, the Government of Kenya has donated shs.7 million to support the conference.
Through the Ministry of Information and Communication, the government has also assured stakeholders in the industry that it will also continue to support such initiatives in order for the country to exploit opportunities in the Information Technology (ICT) sector.
"As a government, we have to employ mechanisms that will empower players in all sectors to maximize on opportunities available and continue creating both business and employment opportunities," said the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo, adding that the conference will enable stakeholders to execute their individual potential in service delivery.
The Conference will also give the local internet Community an opportunity to influence policy decisions on Internet Governance, Build Capacity, and Benchmark and share practices, create awareness on various internet governance and issues, empower them with management of cyber crime, intellectual property rights, electronic commerce and help place Kenya on the global internet map.
The PS said that it was important to note that this is the second attempt after the first bid failed in November 2008 due to challenges experienced during post election violence at a time when ICCAN had settled for Kenya to host the conference.
"Having recorded over 2 million tourists last year, it will also provide an avenue for us to prove to the world that we are the best in conference tourism," said the PS.
