SYMPTOM / CONTROL
When a .co.ke domain expires, the website and every email address on it stop working — but the name is not immediately lost. KeNIC's published lifecycle gives the registrant a window to renew before the name is released for anyone to register. What matters is knowing which stage you are in, today.
Check Your Domain Now01 / THE LIFECYCLE
Under KeNIC's published .KE domain lifecycle, a domain that passes its expiry date enters a Renewal Grace Period of 90 days, during which the registrant can still renew through their registrar. The domain is suspended early in that window — the website goes offline and email stops arriving — which is usually how a business discovers the problem.
After the grace period, the name is deleted and released for public registration, first come, first served. At that point anyone — including a competitor or a reseller — can register it, and with it receive email sent to your old addresses.
02 / ACT IN ORDER
The free domain check reads the public registry record for your domain: registrar, status and expiry date. If you do not know which account the domain sits in — a former developer, an agency, a colleague who left — the record tells you where to start asking.
During the grace period a normal renewal through the registrar of record usually restores the domain. The longer it waits, the closer it moves to release — and renewal is far cheaper than trying to recover a released name from whoever registers it next.
A domain that expired without anyone noticing is a control problem, not a calendar problem. Put the domain in an account the business controls, with renewal responsibility assigned to a named person and a deputy. The domains and DNS guide walks through exactly what to check.