The Kenya Open Data Initiative has launched a new revised portal for public use and engagement. The portal hosts over 600 datasets from the government that were previously not available to the public.

The portal now holds data sets from expenditure and resource allocations, education, health, energy, tourism, demographics studies and County Government specific data.

"Opendata.go.ke has elicited much interest around the world from scholars who have shown how local entrepreneurs use the data to make better decisions that improve their business processes and profitability," said Victor Kyalo, chief executive officer, the ICT Authority, the implementing agency for the KODI project.

"This example and many more fulfil our objective of setting up the platform. As it expands and evolves over time, Kenya Open Data will spark innovation, improve efficiency, promote accountability and promote credibility in government projects among the public."

The Kenyan initiative has been lauded globally. In July 2015, the portal was a finalist in the Open Data Awards in collaboration with Bloomberg in the United Kingdom. The portal was also ranked top 3 globally by for publishing data.

According to Kenya Open Data Project Coordinator, Linet Kwamboka, the portal has seen over 44 million views since it launched in 2011.

"There have been 2.6 million actual interactions with the data – downloads and embeds," Kwamboka said.

Several applications have also been launched to help users interact with the data. The budget app now makes it easy for citizen to see government budget allocations. The portal also offers data lens, which is a new tool that helps users interact, explore and discover insights from data easily.

The initiative has also placed 8 fellows in 3 government ministries and a county government to help in data acquisition. Already, 25 government agencies are sharing their data through the portal.

"Experience elsewhere has shown that making data publicly available reduces costs, makes government more efficient and inspires productive collaborations with the private sector. In Kenya, we are starting to see the beginning of this as ICT developers, policy makers and development partners in civil society use the KODI data to create useful applications, policies and programs for the community," Kwamboka said.