The sixth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) officially opens today afternoon at the United Nations offices in Nairobi. This is the first time that the global annual meeting is been held in Sub - Sahara Africa. The theme for this years IGF is "Internet as a catalyst for change". The IGF is been hosted at a cost of KES 130 million which has been contributed by stakeholders including the international private sector, several governments and the United Nations.
The IGF is the first one since the Arab spring protest that have seen governments in several Northern Africa countries switching off the Internet as a means to control protests. The United Kingdom had also at one point considered an Internet shutdown as a means of control during protest that rocked the country in August this year. Also in perspective is the "unprecedented exposure of confidential cables from the US embassies by Wikileaks."
The IGF attracts more than 2000 delegates from more than 100 countries including more than 1200 delegates from outside Kenya. United Nations Assistant Secretary General, Thomas Stelzer says increased access has brought about new development opportunities, freedoms and innovations.

The developing world has increased their share of mobile subscriptions from 53 per cent in 2005 to 73 per cent in 2010. 90 per cent of the World's population now have access to a mobile phone while 80 per cent of rural world population have access to the mobile phone. Stelzer also estimates the number of people with Internet access at home has increased from 1.4 billion in 2009 to almost 1.6 billion in 2010. 143 countries are now offering commercial 3G services in 2010 compared with 95 countries in 2007.

"The IGF encourages open discussions on emerging issues such as cloud computing services for development , Internet governance in Africa and digital technologies for civic egagement and political change," says Stelzer.

Addressing media during a press briefing , Kenya's permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information said that engaging the youth during such demonstrations was a more effective means of controlling protests than a shut down.  Ndemo also highlighted the role of IGF as a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences rather than a forum for passing decisions to be adopted by members.

Alice Munyua, chairperson of the Kenya IGF and part of the sixth IGF organising committee says the hosting of the IGF in Africa is a recognition of the membership of African member countries. Kenya and other East African countries became members of the IGF as recently as 2008.

Munyua says that a ministerial forum held on a Monday IGF pre-conference proved that no one owned the Internet - it is a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together media, academia, civil society, government and the people.

Recent events have brought about the realisation of the role of social media's role of mobilising people. "Governments are realising that there is no use closing social networks down. The anecdote is making sure citizens have access to the Internet all the time," says Munyua. Governments are left with a role of delicately balancing between access to public information and national security. Munyua's view is that it is better when governments are more open.

Munyua also urges African governments to provide incentives and policies that will allow private players to build their own cloud infrastructure. This will assist in countering the emerging cloud monopolies of the west brought about by social networks and other cloud services.

Kenya meanwhile is set to hold a stakeholders meeting on the data protection bill on September 15th. Munyua says that pertinent privacy issues in the country include syncing of the offline world and online world, including issues as contact and identity information collected during conferences or when visiting certain buildings.