On June 6, the place of data in decision making in the Kenyan context came to the fore when President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the nation on the lifting of the curfew and lockdown in some parts of the country as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
His admission that the action was taken in the best interests of citizens’ lives as a result of the data from the country’s scientists, however shifted the focus from disappointment to a reality check.
It indicated the importance of basing public policy decisions on data.
This calls for the need of not just a centralised place for storing all data that an institution or the country collects, but also analyzing this data.
It is analysis that translates data to information that can inform policy makers so that they make decisions that are based on clear evidence.
