Active Citizens

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#DataWork: From the Abstract to the reality

The Open Institute is excited to note that the brand new dispensary at Lanet Umoja, the first public dispensary in the area since Kenya’s independence in 1963, is almost complete. At this time last year, the dispensary was a mere hope in the minds of Lanet Umoja’s community and in that of their Chief Francis…

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Bahati: a great start to the scale up marathon.

Following the success we had in Lanet Umoja location, where we worked with Chief Kariuki, our scale up process officially kicked off today as we have started a marathon series of introductory sessions in four locations – Bahati, Kirima, Githioro and Mereroni. Our first stop is in Bahati location in the Northern part of Nakuru…

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Checking in: visiting the experience

Sometimes, our blog posts are so high level that we forget to give the interesting minutiae and details of our experience when we go every week. We are currently working in Lanet Umoja location working with women groups to collect SDG 5 data in partnership with Civicus Datashift and with the leadership of Chief Kariuki…

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Data for data’s sake… is good. 

Today was a public holiday in Kenya as muslims celebrate Idd-ul-Adha, the festival that commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to please Almighty God. While the rest of the country took time off, my team and I used the day to bond with each other in the office over chocolate encrusted doughnuts, Mandazi (a…

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The long road to citizen power

Very frequently, and more so  lately, our team gets up very early in the morning and prepares to set off to Lanet Umoja location in Nakuru County. We usually leave at about lunch time, having made many small and important logistical preparations. On most days, we are ferrying boxes filled with paper forms – data…

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Making Transparency Matter: What Citizens Care About

At the Open Institute, we have centered much of our work around transparency – making government and corporate data available to everyone. The argument is simple: the more data and information there is available, the more citizens are empowered to participate in their governance. When citizens participate, the argument follows, life is improved because they…

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