Casper Sitemba (Government of Kenya) gave a keynote presentation at the 2nd International Workshop: Creating Impact with Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition in The Hague, 10 September 2015.

1. Creating Impact with Open Data in
Agricluture & Nutrition
(Kenya)
Mr. Casper Sitemba
Director, Intergovernmental Relations &
GODAN Lead,
Office of the Deputy President
Republic of Kenya

2. “Open” Culture in Kenya
• The culture of ‘open’ was initially pioneered by the Ministry of ICT and the ICT
Board in June 2011, when Kenya became the Second Country in Africa to build
an OpenData Portal and subsequently join OGP in 2011.
• The Portal was an expression of the New Constitution (promulgated on August
4, 2010) that underpinned the rights of citizens, especially in accessing
information but also in accessing timely & quality services from providers
(including Government);
• The Current administration, in its plans for 2013 – 2017 anchored a pillar of
‘openness’ (Uwazi), in the manner that it conducts its affairs and how it
delivers services to citizens;
• The Government is also currently working on the Freedom of Information Bill
that will seek to articulate the vision of the Constitution on fundamental
freedoms relating to right to information.

3. Drivers of Data: Kenya
1. Legislative drivers: include laws, policies, and
other legal frameworks,
2. Political drivers: include the political will rooted
in the understanding of the concept of open data,
3. Technical drivers: include availability of internet
and other virtual spaces, technical capacity, and
4. Public demand drivers from data users such as
government departments, think tanks, academic
institutions, CSOs etc

4. ‘Open’ culture in policy & law'
Access to Information in Kenya
Article 1 of the Constitution gives the people of Kenya the sovereign power, which in
effect emphasizes citizen participation. Additionally, articles 34 and 35 lay out the
framework to access information and the means through which that access is possible.
However, Kenya is yet to ratify the Access to Information Bill
Communication sector policies by Government leading to growth in the information,
communication and technology (ICT) sector. According to the Communication
Commission of Kenya (CCK), Kenya now has over 35 million mobile phone subscribers,
21.2 million internet users and 1.4m broadband subscribers.
Open Data in Kenya
In 2011, the Kenyan Government became the second African country to make
government data freely available to the public.
The Kenyan Open Data Initiative (KODI) is a national government program that focuses
on opening up national and local data.
The goal of the Initiative 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.

5. Open Data - Available Information on AG &
Nutrition:
Census 1989, 1999, 2009
2005/06 household poverty
survey data
Education and health facilities
(GIS)
Sector data
County level fact sheets
Public expenditures data
*Users can register desired
dataset for GoK to respond to
demand!
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics supply 63%
of primary data sets

6. Sampled public information sought
Urban Population Rural Population
Source: Zacharia Chileswa

7. Agricultural Transformation
• The era of open data inaugurated by the then President Kibaki and continued
investment by the current administration has provided developers, researchers
and farmers, unprecedented access to information on Agriculture;
• “What gets measured, gets done” – The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and
Fisheries has performance contracts that ensure innovation in Agricultural
services are a priority and drive its planning & engagement;
• Ministry of Lands is digitizing all lands records making information on land,
easily accessible and available.
• Government has also mapped soils in Kenya, making it easier for farmers to
plant the right crops, procure the right fertilizers – “SMART Farming” etc
• Investments in technology infrastructure in rural areas and a deliberate drive
to reduce cost of data further informing the need to encourage farmers to
access/use data for agricultural decision making;

8. Case Studies: Market Information System – State Department of
Agriculture (AMIS)
• AMIS provides market information to farmers, to make better
informed choices on getting better prices for their
commodities.

9. Case Studies: (iCow)
• iCow provides farmers with tips, gestation calendar and
information to enhance productivity via subscription SMS.
• http://icow.co.ke/

10. Case Studies: (Digital Shamba)
• M-shamba provides a market place to match crop problem as well as
telemedicine facilities for farmers to identify crop disease and purchase
solutions via mobile money. (M-Pesa)
• http://digitalshamba.co.ke/

11. Case Studies: (M-Farm)
•Enables farmers to plan ahead using data and
information to plan wisely – 16,000 farmers.
•

12. Case Studies: (M-Farm)
“I love Kenya because you feel you are home anywhere you go.”
- Jamila Mohamed

13. Potential of Open Data in Ag & Nutrition
• it can........
• Lower the age of Farmers from the current 60 years old, with
more young populations finding agriculture a career of choice;
• Improvement of traditional sources for agriculture and nutrition
infomediaries. Extension workers becoming more agile through
mobile phone, but also young innovators harnessing web/mobile
to provide similar services;
• Increase in productivity and incomes for farmers: reducing costs
by eliminating middlemen, getting right medication for
crops/animals;
• Access right nutrition information by persons, especially in rural
areas leading to improvement of livelihoods.

14. What we have learned: Creating Impact!
1. Promote sector and cross sector specific initiatives
such as GODAN and Global Partnership on Sustainable
Dev Data
2. Develop and champion the capacity to drive
transformation across government e.g. Agricultural
Transformation initiative. ( By Deputy President-Kenya)
3.Formulate policies, regulations and laws to support
use of data to transform service delivery.
4. Champion inclusive multi-stakeholder data
ecosystems to leverage Govt, CSOs, private Sector &
Academia data ( Kenya Partnership on Sustainable
Development Data).

15. -Harnessing The Data Revolution for
Sustainable Development
-Championed by Deputy President
William Ruto
-Core is the Agriculture Pillar that
convenes Govt, Private Sector, CSOs
and thinktanks in the Ag Sector to
promote a culture of usage and
sharing of data
-Currently have situation room on
mitigation of El Nino rains to farmers
KENYA PARTNERSHIP ON SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT DATA

16. Thank You
The future is no longer
defined,
it can only be OPEN!