Can Technology drive Development?

Open Data in Development: Kenyan Case

Introduction Status on Open Data in Kenya Open Data and Development Way forward Conclusion

Kenya Open Data Initiative, was launched on July 8 2011 by President Mwai Kibaki.

This has made key government data freely available to the public through a single online portal. Some of the first datasets to be released include;› The 2009 census, › national and regional expenditure, › key public services

The website allows for visualizations and downloads of the data and easy access for software developers.

Tools and applications have already been built to take this data and make it more useful than it originally was.

KODI is made to improve governance and implement the new Constitution’s provisions on access to information. As of November 2011, there are close to 390 datasets that have been uploaded to the site, with a plan currently in place to upload more data over the next year. There have been over 17,000 page views and over 2,500 dataset downloaded and embedded to various websites and portals. There are now over a hundred requests from the public for new datasets, and there is a clear demand for more data to be made available.

The goal of opendata.go.ke is to make core government development, demographic, statistical and expenditure data available in a useful digital format for researchers, policymakers, ICT developers and the general public.

It's a platform for innovation, that will generate economic and social value: from savings and efficiencies within government, service delivery improvements and citizen feedback systems to new wealth and jobs generated in the private sector.

It enables data-driven decision making: parliamentarians, policy makers, civil society organisations and individuals can see progress and make accurate, informed decisions on issues that affect people's lives.

It's the foundation for improving transparency and accountability: the data includes detailed, timely information on the operations of government, the results of the work it does and the opportunities that exist for improving the country.

Raise awareness to the general public to raise effective demand for Open Data

Institutionalize Open Data- Policy, laws, academia

Infrastructural and capacity Promote Public-Private Partnership on

Open Data

Open Data provides a platform to make government citizen centered, more transparent and accountable.

For a country where this is at a nascent stage the general public needs to be vigilant to sustain this initiative beyond the current regime.

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John Ndung’u GitahiExecutive Assitant

@iLabAfrica-Strathmore Universitywww.ilabafrica.ac.kewww.strathmore.edu

jndungu@strathmore.edu