Kenya plans to sell open data portal

Information Permanent Secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo

The Kenyan government plans to sell its open data portal to stakeholders barely four weeks after the official launch.

President Mwai Kibaki launched the open data portal on 15 July 2011 in a bid to make government information available to the general public.

According to Information Permanent Secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo, this will allow more Kenyans access to public data, ensure transparency and accountability.

“Our role as a ministry is to take data and convert it into information so that it can be used for economic development. We have more than one hundred applications from our young people. They are going to be replicated in many countries,” says Ndemo adding that, as a result, resources will come into Kenya.

This will allow free access by the public to data such as the national census, geospatial information on health, education and other national statistics.

The project has earned the praise of international institutions, among them the World Bank.

Aleem Walji, Practice Manager at the World Bank Institute for Innovation says the bank has urged the government to take the next step and establish partnerships with Kenyans so as to transform the country into a knowledge-based economy.

“Almost overnight, you have taken a step that has not only catapulted Kenya but Africa to the global stage and created the opportunity to move from what I’d like to call e-government to we-government,” says Walji.

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