After twelve years at the helm, Al Kags has left the role of Executive Director of the Open Institute. This is in accordance with the organisation’s ongoing succession planning framework. Co-founder Jay Bhalla has been appointed Interim Executive Director and will lead the organisation through this period while a search for a new Executive Director…
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Across many communities, data is constantly being collected about people’s needs, challenges, and lived realities. Yet, the very communities represented in this data are often excluded from understanding, managing, or using it meaningfully. Evidence Mkononi is a project led by Furaha, our Community Liaison Officer at Maono Space, under the Data Values Advocate Programme and…
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Artificial Intelligence is no longer a distant concept, it is already shaping how we work, learn, and make decisions every day. Yet for many communities, especially in underserved and remote areas, AI still feels out of reach. It is often seen as complex, technical, and disconnected from everyday realities. So we asked ourselves a simple…
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By Esther Njagi, Open Institute and Sharlene Muthuri, Amnesty International Kenya Amnesty International Kenya (AIK) and Open Institute (OI) have collaborated since 2020 to advance data governance, data protection, and privacy rights across Kenya and the wider region. Our joint work bridges the gap between data for development and data for human rights, demonstrating that…
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Next week, policymakers, technologists, regulators, journalists, civil society leaders, and innovators will gather in Nairobi for the East Africa Data Governance Conference 2026. Over two days, participants from across the region will engage in one central question: How can East Africa advance innovation and digital transformation while safeguarding rights, trust, and accountability? This year’s theme, “Navigating Duality in…
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On Wednesday 25th February 2026, we launched a podcast studio at Maono Space in Malindi, and while it is easy to describe it in technical language, microphones calibrated properly, cameras that respect light, acoustic panels that absorb echo, the real story lies in why such a space matters in the current media climate and why…
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The brown envelope is quietly reorganising Kenya’s journalism, deciding what stories get told and which ones stay silent. Our recent reflection paper, Between Truth and the Brown Envelope: Rebuilding Kenya’s Narrative Infrastructure by our Executive Director, Al Kags and the Association of Freelance Journalists (AFJ) president Winnie Kamau, unearths cold truths. It says out loud…
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By Christine Ajulu In New Delhi, I joined a global conversation on designing rights-respecting AI systems. The discussion focused on privacy across the AI lifecycle — from data collection and model training to deployment and downstream use. We explored safeguards, accountability, and regulatory evolution. As the conversation deepened, a foundational truth became clear: ethical AI…
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Grassroots journalists in Kenya face an uphill battle. In counties like Kilifi, reporters navigate underfunded newsrooms, precarious contracts, limited access to public data, and political pressures that shape which stories reach the public. Investigative journalism, which shines a light on accountability, innovation, and community agency, is often impossible under these conditions. The narratives that dominate…
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📅 Dates: November 25 & 26, 2024
📍 Location: Nairobi, kenya
Unlock the future of data governance with industry leaders, insightful sessions, and networking opportunities!
