Untitled - Africa Centre for Open Governance

The new constitution recognized the citizens’ right to know and the state’s duty to provide
information to those who seek it. 45 Citizens need to be empowered to hold their leaders and
public service institutions to account. Access to government information enhances public
participation, while enabling more robust scrutiny and discussion of government actions. The
right to information is therefore regarded as a fundamental human right and is guaranteed under
a raft of regional and international instruments including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter
on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Kenya took a key step toward the institution of open governance when, in July 2011, it launched
the Open Data portal, making a variety of voluminous data held by Government accessible to
the public online for free. 46 In taking this step, the Government “opened itself to greater scrutiny
from citizens and oversight institutions by providing them better access to the information in its
hands, including on expenditure and procurement.” 47 As of November 2011, close to 390 datasets
had been uploaded to the site. There had been over 17,000 page views and over 2,500 dataset
downloaded and embedded to various websites and portals. Over a hundred requests for new
data sets were received from the public following the launch of the portal. 48
In September 2011, Kenya also sent a letter of intent to join the Open Government Partnership,
launched by co-chairs US President Barack Obama and Brazil’s Djilma Roussef at the UN General
Assembly in September 2011. The Open Government Partnership or OGP, is a new multilateral
initiative that aims “to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency,
empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance”. 49
It should be noted, however, that despite these efforts, a lot remains outstanding in relation to open
government. Open Data is necessary but not sufficient to fulfil the state’s obligations towards its
citizens. The Freedom of Information Bill which gives effect to Article 35 of the constitution is yet to
be passed. Without this law, access to information will continue to be frustrated by the arguments
that have traditionally been employed to deny it. Most significantly, the Bill contains provisions
that will amend the Official Secrets Act which, until the Bill is passed, provides a statutory haven
for all public officers that seek to keep information inaccessible to the public.
AfriCOG is one of the 15 founding members of the Steering Committee which
oversees the OGP. The Committee is co-chaired by the United States and Brazil, and
membership from other founding governments and civil society organizations,
including Twaweza-an East Africa wide citizen agency and public accountability
initiative.
45 Article 35 of the new constitution guarantees every citizen, the right to information not just from the state but even
other parties. It states: 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
46 https://opendata.go.ke/
47 CIPESA ICT Policy Briefing Series, “Open Government: Which Way Africa Collaboration on International ICT Policy for
East and Southern Africa” September 2011
48 Ministry of Information and Communication/Kenya ICT Board/ Open Data Portal, http://opendata.go.ke/
49 www.opengovpartnership.org
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