Domain owners in Kenya will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets to keep their websites online. This is as a result of a 43% price increase for third-level Kenyan domains, which will be effective from February 1 this year. The change, which was communicated by Host Africa to its customers, will impact thousands of website owners across the country.
The price hike primarily affects domains ending with Kenyan extensions such as .co.ke, .or.ke, and .ac.ke, among many others. These domain names, currently priced between KES 1,000 and KES 1,500 for new registrations and KES 1,500 to KES 2,000 for renewals, will see a marked increase. Following the adjustment, website owners can expect to pay anywhere from KES 1,400 to KES 4,200 annually, depending on their specific domain extension.
In addition to the price increase, the Kenyan domain registrar KENIC (Kenya Network Information Centre) has implemented a new transfer fee of KES 1,158.84 for domain transfers. This is a major change from their previous policy, where domain transfers were processed free of charge.
What Are Third-Level Domains?
For those unfamiliar with domain hierarchy, third-level domains in the Kenyan context refer to the main part of your web address when using country-coded extensions. For example, in a domain like “example.co.ke”:
- .ke is the country code (first level)
- .co is the second level
- “example” is the third level
What Options Do Website Owners Have?
To mitigate the impact of this price increase, website owners have limited options, including:
- Early Renewal: Customers can renew their domains before February 1, 2025, at the current rates.
- Extended Registration: Website owners can register or renew domains for up to 5 years at existing prices, effectively locking in lower rates for an extended period.
Though KENIC has not provided an official explanation for the price increase, this hike certainly raises some important questions about the future of Kenya’s digital economy.
Small businesses and individual website owners who operate on tight budgets will likely feel the pinch of this surge in cost, which will play a role in deciding whether they can still maintain their online presence.
Website owners are advised to review their domain portfolios and consider taking advantage of current prices before the new rates take effect starting next week.
