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.