On July 8, 2011, President Mwai Kibaki officially launched the Kenya Open Data Initiative at a public event attended by more than 3,000
people. The new Internet portal compiled previously scattered or hard-to-access government information and made it available to the
public for free.
Kenya launched its initiative at a time when a number of countries were also putting government information online. The United States led the global open data movement, launching its site in 2009. Britain’s official data site went online a year later. Within three years, 31 countries — including Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Moldova, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay — had created similar portals. Multilateral organizations embraced the concept as well; The World Bank inaugurated its own open data website in 2010. Read on.