THE PROJECT FOR STRENGTHENING OF SURVEY OF KENYA FOR GIS PROMOTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA

J.K. Mathenge¹, B.N. Owino², J. Sato²

1 - Director of Surveys, Ministry of Lands, Nairobi, Kenya

2 - Survey of Kenya, Ministry of Lands, Nairobi, Kenya

knsdi_secretariat@yahoo.com

The establishment of Kenya National Spatial Data Infrastructure (KNSDI) aims at providing an environment that would enable use, sharing, dissemination, efficient and effective management of information about Kenya’s national resources.

The Government of Kenya’s commitment in constructing this infrastructure is captured in the current National Development Plan. The Survey of Kenya, which is the national surveying and mapping organization, was nominated as the implementing agency of the programme.

However, the organizations capacity as regards the use and application of GIS technology, which is the foundation for developing the KNSDI is still low, this necessitated the Government of Kenya to request for technical cooperation from Government of Japan in order to implement the programme.

After careful evaluation and discussions between both Governments, the Government of Japan through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), finally decided to offer technical assistance in the implementation of the programme. Both parties agreed that KNSDI being a long term and high technology programme, be implemented in three phases, phase one will aim at building capacity of the implementing agency; phase two promoting and propagating the use and application of GIS technology in the Republic of Kenya and finally phase three would be the construction of the KNSDI.

In order to achieve the goal of phase one of the programme which is entitled The Project for Strengthening of Survey of Kenya for GIS Promotion in the Republic of Kenya. JICA will dispatch several consultants in the field of GIS.

The expected outcomes of this project will be: the improvement of the organizations capacity for digitization of maps; the formulation of standards for the KNSDI, and finally the development of resources for GIS disseminations in Kenya.

The phase one of the programme will be implemented in two years, which will cover the period from October 2006 to September 2008.

For effective and efficient management of the project, collaboration with partner organizations was considered very important. Joint Coordinating Committee was therefore constituted whose membership composed of the partner organizations.

It is important to note that this project was initiated by the Government of Kenya, which realized importance of geo-information in planning and decision-making on allocation of national resources for sustainable development of the country.