President Mwai Kibaki launched the open data portal on 15 July 2011 in order to make the government’s information available to the public.
According to Information Permanent Secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo, this will allow more Kenyans access to public data, ensure transparency and accountability for the government.
“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 and education and statistics, which has been kept secret by the government for decades.
Its importance to the public has become evident especially going by the hundreds of requests to include more data from various sectors into the portal that the ministry has been inundated with since it’s unveiling.
Ndemo says that other benefits from the new move by the government, which has put Kenya in the news as the only country to return power to the public and allowing public scrutiny and participation, the initiative will also create jobs for thousands of young Kenyans in the county with government vision’s 2030 plans.
The project has attracted international financial institutions and a number of development partners, among them the World Bank, who have lauded the move by the government.
Aleem Walji, Practice Manager at the World Bank Institute for Innovation says the bank has urged the government to move to 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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Autor(en)/Author(s): Brian Adero
Quelle/Source: IT News Africa, 25.07.2011
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