Alice Munyua is know in the internet Circles as an astute Kenyan representative largely been identified with the local internet in Kenya Kenic as well as the GAC .
ICANNrelies on certain advisory committees to receive guidance and advice related to the interests and needs of stakeholders who are not able to directly participate in the Supporting Organizations; one of these advisory committees is the Governmental Advisory Committee, GAC which is composed of representatives of national governments from all over the world.The GAC provides its advice and guidance upon request. One of its most important responsibilities is its duty to analyze ICANN’s activities and policies as they might influence governments, especially with regards to the interaction between
ICANN‘s policies and national laws or international agreements.Her position included organizing events such as the Nairobi IGF among helping with the organizations of the regional IGFs an mainly the EastAfrican IGF since she is a representative from Kenya which is considered of of the internet Hubs in Africa.
However in the recent times and especially during the EA-IGF Alice fell short of announcing her exit from the local GAC having handed over officially the mantle to the Kenyan ISOC office.Its unclear why she is set to abandon her post but the internet is awash with
reports that her tenure at the Kenyan ccTLD is at jeopardy after she fell off with the board she chairs because apparently members haven’t been toeing the line. Alice is seen as a great influence at Local internet industry in Kenya and especially in the ICANN circle owing to her attendance to most ICANN events like IGF’s.
In the recent times she has been seen supporting an applicant in the new ICANN new gTLD round that closed recently against ICANN rules, since she represents the GAC she had apparently taken sides , she even went ahead to
announce her preference in a video saying “
have supported the DotAfrica application – the legitimate one ” and wrongly citing the ICANN guidebook as
“the new gTLD Guidebook requires that for a geographic string that you have community support – and in our case, this translates to the number of governments”, unfortunately by her own admission
“I have not read the ICANN Applicant’s Guidebook” , prompting a huge outcry by one of the “.Africa” Applicants DotConnectAfrica who went further to castigate her on one of their unabashed
No campaigns.Subsequently due to her actions, it emerges that there is a huge dissatisfaction among the Kenyan ccTLD body . It’s unclear how she will end up but her recent actions may have triggered counter actions that would cast her negative light considering her towering career history in the African ccTLD Circles.
Such effects may cost her position at KENIC and subsequently GAC ICANN would be hard pressed to explain how a GAC member would take sides and ensure a fare contest especially between the two African applicants, GAC would have been mandated to give genuine early warnings as part of the process but an early warning for the .africa would be seen as an affront to the Applicant whose side Alice has not taken and this spells bias which is not in ICANN’s vocabulary.
The recent issues at the KeNIC body were being reported on local media as well as the Kictanet the Kenyan online mailing list that has been active in the internet circles may expose a larger scam that has been simmering , owing to the disquiet it remains anyone’s guess how things will be now that she has exited her position at KeNIC, its not known if she will be handed a position at Uniforum along side others. Take a Guess!
