Kenya creates an open data portal

In as much as I hate the politics of Kenya, I must say the government manages to impress me every so often.
Angalieni hii open data portal ambayo serikali imeweka kwenye mtandao, now hopping they avail more data.

www.opendata.go.ke

Inaashiria serikali begining to understand umuhimu wa uwazi.

About the Kenyan Open Government

Data PortalOur information is a national asset, and this site is about sharing it.
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.

Why are we making data available?

Making this data easily accessible is important for 3 key reasons:

• 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.

What data is available?
Right now, there are over 160 datasets including the complete 2009 census, national budget data, nation and county public expenditure data, information on health care and school facilities. See the Data Catalog for a full list of what is available.

Who can use this data?
In short, anybody is free to use this data for commercial or non-commercial purposes. See the terms and conditions for a more detailed explanation.

How can I use this data?
This site is intended to initially have something for everyone:

• There are maps and county factsheets that will let you quickly see data in a convenient form.
• The charts and tables on the site are dynamic and can be customised with filters and queries to answer your particular questions.
• Finally, the raw data is available for download and accessible via an API so technical users and developers can analyse data and use it to build applications for the web and mobile.

here is the website: http://www.opendata.go.ke

i think TZ alredy has something like this. can anyone please share the link to the tanzanian website with us?

in tanzania i know sth like this
http://www.tanzania.go.tz/
im not sure if that is the thing you are refering

NDINDA said:

in tanzania i know sth like this
http://www.tanzania.go.tz/
im not sure if that is the thing you are refering

Click to expand...

I think that is different, what you point to is more like Welcome to Kenya e-Government or more like Kenya.go.ke

What we have here is a data portal which allows any one to generate reports of public data, compile and download in a usable format.
Some of the advantages of this, is that having access to the raw data means that the citizenry no longer has to take the governments word as
the absolute truth.
Now anyone can go download the raw data analyse it. It makes it harder (NOT IMPOSSIBLE) for the government to falsify statistics since anyone can analyse the data.

namtih58 said:

i think that is different, what you point to is more like welcome to kenya e-government or more like kenya.go.ke

what we have here is a data portal which allows any one to generate reports of public data, compile and download in a usable format.
Some of the advantages of this, is that having access to the raw data means that the citizenry no longer has to take the governments word as
the absolute truth.
Now anyone can go download the raw data analyse it. It makes it harder (not impossible) for the government to falsify statistics since anyone can analyse the data.

Click to expand...

oh, i got it, kudos for kenya,

NDINDA said:

in tanzania i know sth like this
http://www.tanzania.go.tz/
im not sure if that is the thing you are refering

Click to expand...

ah yes this one.

it is a helpful site. there is alot of good data on that site all they need is to put it in a user friendly formatt

[h=1]Kenya allows public online access to govt data[/h]
By CHRISTINE MUNGAI

Posted Sunday, July 10 2011 at 10:27

THE EAST AFRICAN

Kenya has launched an Open Data portal, the first African country to make government data accessible to the ordinary citizen on an Internet-based platform.


The portal will allow users to compare information at national, province and county levels. Users will also create maps and other visualisations and directly download data on their computer or mobile phone.

The Kenya Open Data Portal uses published data from various ministries on indicators like government spending at national and county level, Constituency Development Fund budget allocation and the status of projects in the county, data from the national census capturing demographic and development information, as well as the location of key infrastructure in the county, such as health facilities and schools.


It is expected to not only benefit researchers and application developers, but also the ordinary citizen who, for the first time, will have access to data about their community.

"This platform will move the country forward from personality-based politics to evidence and issue-based politics," said Dr Bitange Ndemo, P.S at the Ministry of Information and Communication.


CEO of Kenya ICT Board Paul Kukubo says this is the first step in making Kenya a knowledge-driven society, in line with the country's Vision 2030. "Kenya is taking a leadership role in the region by making government data accessible," he says.


The country joins the ranks of the US, UK, Brazil and Mexico, whose governments have open data portals in place.

The Kenya Open Data portal is an initiative of the government of Kenya spearheaded by the Ministry of Information and Communications, managed by the Kenya ICT Board in partnership with the World Bank, Socrata and; private web and content developers.