Open-Data-–How-Kenya-Did-It1

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Open Data How Kenya Did It

www.opendata.go.ke @KenyaOpenData

By

Linet kwamboka

Former Project Coordinator:Kenya Open Data Initiative

Kenya Open Government Partnership

Blogger at datascience.co.ke

@g33kmate


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Open Data How Kenya Did It

IntroductionOpen Data has become a very popular phenomenon around the world. Withan army of supporters behind it, the idea has also faced its rounds of

questions and resistance within industry with culture, legislation,bureaucracy, and other human forces also getting in the way of whatis/should be happening.

Open Data is a more complicated science that is moving towardsunderstanding how data can be shared on technology platforms to peoplewho can easily make sense of it so as to influence their processes ofdecision-making, resource allocation and accountability

Out of data, data analysis; business intelligence; governance; accountability

etc. can effectively take place. Making this data open, though, gives anopportunity to many more players within and without the distributinginstitutions to benefit from the availability of that data hence the push forthe global effort, Open Data.

The former president of Kenya H.E President Mwai Kibaki launched theKenya Open Data Initiative famously known as KODI on the 8thof June 2011.An initiative that had been attempted once before by the government in2009 needed and took more of the dedication of a team that came from amix of different backgrounds ranging from government, civil society, privatesector, development partners and academia.

BackgroundKenya has been an independent and sovereign country since 1963. Up untilthe signing in of the new constitution in 2010 that saw Kenya move into amore devolved system with county governments, Kenya has for a very longtime been guided by a single government institution with the presidentbeing the most powerful symbol of national unity.

The government exists in many government ministries each responsible fordifferent aspects within government and providing services within thecountry.For a very long time, the government agencies have been charged with theresponsibility of collecting information and doing research all around thecountry that is focused on their main agenda within the ministries and thisinformation lies entirely within those institutions.

There have been two main problems inherent within various ministries:

Lack of digital systemsData collection and storage within government has been conductedthrough paper-based processes. With the boom in the digital agewithin the Kenyan industry, the government has not been very

actively accommodative of the digital age. There are many recordsthrough the years that need digitization but challenges like lack of


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funding, manpower and dedication have become the stumblingblocks. This, in return has made it very difficult to retrieve and sharehistorical data in more user-friendly ways for distribution or use.This challenge also affects the effective enjoyment that comes withthe benefits of using data for better decision-making and resource

allocation.

BureaucracyAccessing information within government has been faced with amassive challenge of the bureaucracy of decision making trees thatdictate that decisions are to be made by the most hard to reachofficials. This has effectively ensured the existence of delayeddecision-making and elevation to the power of dissemination of datato individuals who otherwise should have no business in standing inthe way of data distribution.Information is power and those that have the knowledge that theyare the gate passes to this information have effectively used thispower to effect the data hugging syndrome that allows only a chosenfew access to information that should rightfully belong to themajority.

Working in SilosOne of the biggest problems within the Kenyan Government and manyother governments throughout the world is the fact that mostministries work in silos. No information sharing, collaboration orteamwork of any kind exists. In fact, most work in competition with

each other.Ministers have been quoted saying that they do not have access toinformation within other government ministries/departments, evenwhen this information should be housed within their ministries.

What the lack of partnership within government has done is to makeit difficult for the top decision makers to have a bigger picture ofhow projects should be done to save costs and reduce waste.If the ministry of agriculture communicated better with the ministryof environment, they would know what the weather conditions arelike and what kinds of seeds and fertilizers to buy and what kind of

advice to give to farmers.If the ministry of roads communicated better with the ministry ofenergy, we wouldnt see all the property loss, power blackouts,internet cuts etc. that happen during road expansions to name but afew simplistic examples.

PartnershipsThe Kenya Open Data Initiative has been a partnership of three majorplayers:-The Government of Kenya

-The Private Sector-The Civil Societies


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GovernmentThe Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Information and

communication working closely through the Kenya ICT board which has beenthe driver of the project since its inception worked to bring togetherpartners who could bring a vast range of knowledge from various sectors toensure that KODI covers and takes into consideration all the sectors thatcould benefit from the availability of government information.

The Kenya ICT Board put together a group of task force members who werecharged with the responsibility of making the main decisions for open dataand popularizing KODI among the major stakeholders.

Within the government there exists the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics(KNBS), which is a main organization responsible for collecting statistics inthe country for and from various ministries and making them available.Traditionally, KNBS has been collection information and selling it to coverits financial obligation from the government through the statistical abstractwith is a coarse grained provision of the statistics in the most high levelform with very little detail of the data in the effort to make the abstractless bulky.The statistical abstract is the source of al major statistics by thegovernment on all the numeric and tabular statistics the social, political,and economic indicators of the country. The most unbelievable thing,

however, is the fact that this report is only available in its paperbackversion and no digital version exists or is distributed out of the bureau.


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Unlike counterparts in the Rwandese government (National Institute ofStatistics of Rwanda (NISR)) who are now using Africas technologystronghold system of SMS to collect and disseminate national statistics KNBSstill has a bit of way to go in this fronts.

The World Bank Kenya office as a key development partner to thegovernment was and still is very instrumental in making KODI happen. Witha team of economists and data curators, the Government of Kenya receivedan enormous amount of help not just financially but through a dedicatedsource of manpower and knowledge sharing. Through the bank, KODI gotinternational acclamation and recognition and also through the support ofvarious activities around KODI through external partners in the applicationdevelopment space.Out of the government, the World Bank has invested in Ideas that have seenthe growing use of KODI within the Kenyan technology ecosystem and a pushas well to have more digital systems that enable easy and free access of theinformation, visuals and analytics that come out of the initiative.

Many other government departments have been cooperative in terms ofproviding data and guidance on how the KODI team would be able toeffectively be a point of dissemination for the various statistics that areavailable.

The government and its development partners play a key role in ensuringconstant supply of data in formats that are easily accessible to the commonpeople who want to use this data directly or indirectly to benefit their way

of life.

Private SectorGoogle played a very key role during the inception of the idea of a possiblegovernment portal that hosted data. Providing a team of managers andvisualization tools that helped in the representation of the available data inmore human readable formats. A range of training activities was alsoconducted to bring people up to speed on the use and manipulation of theavailable data for economic and social gain and here Google played a leadrole of organizing activities that enhanced knowledge sharing, acceptanceand great positive uptake of the initiative.

Over the months, private sector organizations like Microsoft have also comein to sponsor the training and development of tools around the KODIinitiative. Through the Innovate for Good price challenge, Microsoft Kenya isgeared to start a challenge for application developers to get involved andengaged in the open data initiative through a training program, mentorshipand application development.

The media has been a key catalyst of the propagation to popularity of theinitiative. With both positive and negative stories running in the variousmedia channels, Kenyans have been informed of the progress of theinitiative just as they have on the stumbling blocks of the same. No publicity


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is bad publicity and the media has been a very important partner as theyhave the greatest reach to citizens of all walks of life in the country.

The ripple effect of the involvement of the private sector in KODI has notonly been its great uptake within the Kenyan business and technology

industry but the bigger picture of what is easily becoming the most talkedabout topic around the world today. Big Data. Through the availability ofthis subset of what could be a bigger picture of the data available, people inindustry have a chance to start experiencing the benefits of data-baseddecision making, projection and predictive modeling.

Many other private sector organizations have been involved and benefitteddirectly or indirectly from the initiative.Private sector plays a key role in open data when it comes to giving acommercialization angle of how to make monetary gains through the use offreely available data. This data can be used for effective business modeling,marketing, understanding demographics of potential business opportunitiesand predictive modeling.

Civil SocietyDuring the launch of the KODI portal in 2011, President Mwai Kibaki, in hisspeech said, Data is the foundation of improving accountability andgovernance.

There is need for someone within the initiative who has full contact withthe interests of the common citizen and a full understanding of how

information flow should work within the society and what its potential gaincould be. This person is called the Civil Society.Through civil society, KODI stopped becoming a technology platform thatdisseminates information to citizen to a government platform that allowscitizens to hold the government into account of its past activities andengagements through the data provided.

Working with groups like AFRICOG, Development Initiatives, Twaweza, ICJ,SODNET, Article19; KODI is able to realize its full potential of a drivetowards a more open government that upholds the key messages of reducingchallenges of open governance that include:

Improving public service Increasing public integrity More effectively managing public resources

Through work with the civil society, Kenya successfully signed up as amember of the Open Government movement that saw the drafting ofchallenges and commitments that the government could make towardsbecoming more transparent, accountable and involving to its citizens I theprocesses of decision making and resource allocation.


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When information which properly belongs to the public is systematicallywithheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their ownaffairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and eventually-incapable ofdetermining their destinies." President Richard Nixon 1972

Legislation

In the Kenyan constitution, Article 35 has a section on Access toinformation that states:

35.

(1) Every citizen has the right of access to

(a) information held by the State; and

(b) information held by another person and required for the

exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom.

(2) Every person has the right to the correction or deletion of

untrue or misleading information that affects the person.

(3) The State shall publish and publicize any important

information affecting the nation.

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While this section of the constitution is very key to ensuring that everyKenyan citizen should enjoy and exercise the right to information; mostKenyan citizens do not have a clue about the availability of this section ofthe constitution in what is their fundamental rights.

There have been arguments that the Kenyan citizen has no business beinginvolved in matters of information and data as the great misconception isthat access to information can only rely on access to technology andinternet. Access to information is available in many other forms that includechannels like the media and civil society.

It is very essential for every Kenyan citizen to have access to informationespecially from the government, as this is a great source of information thathelps in effective decision-making especially in agriculture, health,education, and business.

The main challenge with the push towards access to information has beenthe lack of a Freedom of Information law that would enhance the existingsmaller section of the constitution that makes a mention of the same.Government legislators have been working on developing these laws but todate, they only exist in draft format.Many other African Countries have these bills affecting the freedom ofinformation in place but not many of these have made a move towards theexistence of open data projects that allow free and easy access togovernment information.This goes to prove what might be the notion that for an effective open data

movement, what you need might not be necessary or only great laws thatmake mention of these rights but in fact an engaged and organizedcommunity of dedicated individuals who would go over and beyond toensure that the common citizen has access to information that will helpthem make more informed decisions regarding their lives for a bettergeneration.

All this notwithstanding, all the responsible bodies within governmentinvolved in legislation of these laws need to move with haste to ensure thatthe laws affecting the freedom of individuals in regards to accessinginformation are put well in place and prevent the consequences of the lack

of it.

FinancesUnlike most government projects, Open Data is one of the least costdemanding projects I have come across.Open Data is about developing a portal that holds information, gatheringinformation that is to be stored on this portal, developing a communityaround this information and managing activities around the working andoutput of the available data.

The portalThe KODI platform lies on a portal provided by Socrata, which is a USA,based technology company that provides open data and big data solutions


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for companies and governments around the world. This portal is available ona commercial contract basis entered by the Government of Kenya and thetechnology company.There have been many questions raised as to why an open source solution ora Kenyan based solution was not used.

Open Source There are a few open source products that exist for opendata out there and as most open source projects, they require someone tounderstand the platform and to customize them to fit the needs of what wasthen KODI. This is not to say that no one could, but there had not been aproven record of these platforms handling data of this magnitude and giventhat this is a government project, trial and error is not a clear option ofwhat should happen.

Kenyan Solution What a lot of people might not know is that this projectwas very much done in less than 5 months, from the time it was Okayed togo ahead to possibly launch in June 2011.For any great software engineer out there, given the magnitude of theproject, 5 months might not have been enough time to do all the necessarysteps that are involved in effective software development taking intoconsideration the software development methods that also involve takinginto account security, effective software testing, requirement elicitation,installation, training, government procurement; and all other process thatwould have made a successful portal.

The community

Financial requirements for developing a community around the Open Datamovement lie mainly in training and user gatherings.The main communities that should be building around Open Data are:-industry players-students-citizens-application developers.These gatherings may be as much as an informal training session of how touse the platform both for download or upload of the data to thevisualization of the data for better understanding and decision making.This can also involve breakfast meetings to discuss the progress and policies

that need to be included within the running of the project.

Project Management.Open Data being a more public engaging project needs management atvarious levels:1. Project Coordinator/Manager this is an individual that has an overalloutlook of the entire project and its elements. This kind of individual shouldhave both technical and project/social management skills at a high level.

2. Technical person Given that the technicality of the portal is alreadymanaged by Socrata in a binding contract, the technical persons mainmandate is to carry out requirements on the design of the portal and


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functionalities that need to be added in order to translate these incoordination with Socrata into new features of the portal.This person should also have analytical and GIS capabilities in order tovisualize the available data into formats that are easily understandable bythe community.

3. Data evangelist This is the communications person. The idea of OpenData might be known among the elite who have access to channels thatallow access but there is a mass of citizens who should have access to thisinformation but dont. The data evangelist works with partners like themedia, both social and traditional media like newspapers, radio and TV toensure a widespread message of the existence of this portal for all citizens.The data evangelist is also responsible for connecting the communitiesaround open data with events and putting out messages of communication.

4. The taskforce This is a group of a good mix of industry players fromprivate sector, civil society and government. A selection of up to sixindividuals who are charged with the responsibility of developing thepolicies around Open Data, popularizing the initiative within their variousstrongholds as well as keeping the team that works on the day to dayrunning of the initiative in check.

The technology

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Open-Data-–How-Kenya-Did-It1