Michael Murungi, Open Access to Public Legal Information – Thoughts and Lessons from Kenya

27 December 2017 · AfricanLII

“Open Access to Public Legal Information – Thoughts and Lessons from Kenya”

A Presentation By

Michael M. Murungi

Editor/CEO

At the

Access to African Supranational and Regional Law

Hosted by the African Legal Information Institute, a project of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre

In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme

5-6 November 2012,

The Crowne Plaza, Rosebank

Johannesburg, South Africa

o What is the role of government when it comes to infrastructure?

§ An effective transport and communication system is an imperative for human progress, or development (example of Valley Road in Nairobi)

§ The speed and efficiency at which goods and people can move is a defining factor in the growth of an economy

§ The work of government in this regard: urban planning, funding road construction

§ It is an open piece of architecture. You don’t need government permission to use the road. The permission is already given.

§ It is not a road for government vehicles. It is a road for all vehicles – private vehicles as well. In fact you will find more private than government vehicles.

§ It is also an interoperable piece of architecture - vans, tractors, buses, trucks, bicycles, pedestrians. This means that it has been built to a certain standard

§ what has changed about road construction today? (human effort, mechanical engineering technology)

§ What has changed about the cost of publishing today? (human effort, communications technology) – (example of 1906 Kenya Gazette, compared with 2012 Kenya Gazette)

§ What happened when government tried to monopolise the use of the road? Stagnation, limited choice, quality, cannot meet the demand, people don’t move, the economy does not grow

§ What happens when government opens up so that private sector can do a passenger business on it:

· Explosion of consumer choice

· New transportation business models emerge

· People and goods move

· The economy grows

o What is the role of government when it comes to public information?

§ Information age. Information and knowledge society/economy.

§ Information is the lifeblood of the new society/economy. The movement of information – ideas – knowledge is as important now as the Movement of people and goods

§ The speed with which people and institutions acquire and apply new knowledge is the new definition the competitive edge

§ The role of government with regard to the movement of information, ideas, knowledge.

· To provide the conditions in which a knowledge economy will thrive

o Policies, laws and procedures for access to information (access to information as a constitutional right)

o Not to strangulate the flow of information or to monopolize the dissemination of information (it is not the work of government to compete with the private sector or CSOs….)

o To provide easy access to public information

o Public information of good quality – interoperable

§ In the old order access to government print was the goal

§ Today, it is not enough to just provide public information – the metrics of access now are the

· Formats

· Technology platforms on which the info is provided

§ Open, Re-usable, interoperable

§ Access to public information is even a human right in Kenya

§ Kenya has had a very eventful experience in providing access to public legal information.

§ Laws and Law Reports for example

· 1897-1905: Kenya’s first output of law reports (East African Law Reports)

· Laws were published by the Crown Press

· 1934 – 1956: Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa Law Reports (EALR)

· 1957 –75: The East Africa Law Reports (cited as E.A.)

· End of British rule in mid 1960s. Then the rain started beating us

§ 1982-1992: Two volumes of what were known as the Kenya Appeal Reports

o About NCLR

§ In 1995, the National Council for Law Reporting Act was passed About NCLR – NCLR Mandate - http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/index.php?id=29

NCLR Free Access message http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/index.php?id=401

Kenya Open Data - https://opendata.go.ke/

o But Governments can provide both access to basic/raw information and also innovate by providing value-add information products/services?

§ Moving from merely providing access to information

§ Generate and disseminate knowledge

o Are we constrained by a lack of resources?

§ What was the cost of the technologies for road construction in the 1970s?

§ What was the cost (human effort and monetary expense) of the technologies for publishing the Laws of the colony of Kenya in 1900s compared to today?

§ Strategic decision by NCLR

· Development partner support towards access to info programmes is more than private company profits from selling public information

· There is non-financial benefit to providing easy access to information – a legally informed, empowered and participative citizenry

o Geographical boundaries are disappearing

· Nations are merging

· Regional legislative bodies

· Common markets – free movement of people and information

· Nations are building regional, transcontinental roads

· Building roads that shake hands with each other

· Free movement of information and ideas?

· What about access to regional law – are we building information architecture that makes it easier for our regional/continental/global citizens to easily access public information

· East African Legislative Assembly

· THE END

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