Map Kibera — Residents Surveying an Informal Settlement into OpenStreetMap

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 18 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

18 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

Thirteen residents with GPS handsets surveyed their own neighbourhood in under a month; in 2010 it entered OpenStreetMap. Whether the maps changed anything rests on the project's own account.

Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Scale🏘️ District
FundingJumpstart International at launch; UNICEF for the second phase; later donor grants

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,216 documented projects · 🏙️ 4 more in Nairobi · 📊 Open data guide · 📡 Data & IoT projects

In November 2009 thirteen young residents of Kibera — a cluster of informal settlements in Nairobi's Kibra area of roughly 2.5 km² — were trained on GPS handsets by the GroundTruth Initiative and surveyed their own neighbourhood in under a month. The survey was imported into OpenStreetMap in January 2010: water points, toilets, clinics, schools, pharmacies and security black spots. Map Kibera Trust, run from Kibera, later repeated the method in Mathare and Mukuru and added an SMS reporting site and a video news channel. It is the older sibling of Digital Matatus, and the difference is the object: Digital Matatus mapped a transport network into GTFS and was university-led, while this mapped a place, and residents did the surveying. The founding claim that Kibera was blank — a blank spot or a forest on official maps — is the project's own framing, widely repeated since; no source was found testing it against Kenyan government survey records. The population is contested too: the 2009 census counted 170,070 people across the eight locations that form Kibera, against circulating estimates ranging from half a million to over a million. The most recent field mapping this atlas could confirm is from 2024.

Live 📅 since 2009

Sources

↗ Map Kibera Trust — About (operator)The operator's own description: launched in 2009 with young residents creating the first digital map of Kibera, later replicated in Mathare and Mukuru; a citizen mapping, SMS, blogging and video project. The page carries no dates.
↗ State of the Map 2024, Nairobi — Mapping Kenya: 15 Years of Map Kibera and beyondPublished 7 September 2024The project's own September 2024 conference session, and the source for the street-light, waste-bin and school-solar outcomes. It is the project's account, not an evaluation.
↗ Participedia — Map Kibera case recordPublished 9 December 2021 · updated 9 May 2022Case record carrying the founding detail (late 2009, Hagen and Maron of GroundTruth, Jumpstart International funding, 13 mappers, first map in under a month, a UNICEF-funded second phase), the KSh 37 million Ministry of Education and police-post claims, and the recorded criticism that evidence linking the mapping to interventions is limited.
↗ Pánek and Sobotová (2015), Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries — author's summaryPublished 24 April 2015The author's summary of the article: an independent academic comparison of two Nairobi mapping projects: the community-based Map Kibera proved more sustainable than the researcher-led 'Map Kibera Project', which used closed formats and was led by Western researchers. Also the source for the general finding that the more demanding the technology, the less a community can take part. It does not address whether any authority used the data.
↗ Making All Voices Count / IDS — Open mapping from the ground up: learning from Map Kibera (2017)Published 3 October 2017Co-founder Erica Hagen's 2017 study of the project, based on interviews with staff, participants and data users; it reports increased resources and targeting by government and NGOs, and is not independent.
Show 5 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ OpenStreetMap Foundation — LicenceData extracted from OpenStreetMap after September 2012 is under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0, with attribution and share-alike; before that, CC BY-SA 2.0. The 2010 Kibera import predates the transition and was described at the time as public-domain data contributed to OSM.
↗ Daily Nation — Myth shattered: Kibera numbers fail to add upPublished 3 September 2010Reports the 2009 census count of 170,070 across the eight locations forming Kibera and the census chief's statement that informal-settlement populations had been exaggerated.
↗ Tactical Technology Collective — 10 tactics remixed: Map Kibera, KenyaTactical Tech's case note: dates the first map to November 2009, names Hagen and Maron and the thirteen participants with hand-held GPS, and records the four mapped categories and the 'blank spot or a forest on official maps' framing. The page carries no publication date.
↗ OpenStreetMap Wiki — Nairobi (Map Kibera import)The OpenStreetMap community's Nairobi page records the date the Map Kibera data entered OpenStreetMap and that it was contributed as public-domain data. A continuously edited wiki page.
↗ MIT News — Digital Matatus project makes the invisible visible (26 Aug 2015) archived copyMIT's account of Digital Matatus as a joint project of MIT, Columbia University and the University of Nairobi that converted matatu route data to GTFS.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2009. 6 of 10 sources carry a publication date, from 3 September 2010 to 7 September 2024.

When the sources were published

  1. Nation Media Group · pressDaily Nation — Myth shattered: Kibera numbers fail to add up
  2. Pánek & Sobotová (author copy, EJISDC) · researchPánek and Sobotová (2015), Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries — author's summary
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) · researchMIT News — Digital Matatus project makes the invisible visible (26 Aug 2015)
  4. Making All Voices Count · ngoMaking All Voices Count / IDS — Open mapping from the ground up: learning from Map Kibera (2017)
  5. Participedia · researchParticipedia — Map Kibera case record · updated 9 May 2022
  6. OpenStreetMap Foundation · communityState of the Map 2024, Nairobi — Mapping Kenya: 15 Years of Map Kibera and beyond

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 18 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence file · public beta 18 addressable claims, 10 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The file is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 18

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-a4b636788aa19406 quantitative
In November 2009 thirteen young residents of Kibera
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Tactical Tech dates the first map to November 2009 and counts 13 local participants; Participedia records 13 young people from Kibera trained after the project was conceived in October 2009.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Tactical Technology Collective — 10 tactics remixed: Map Kibera, Kenya
  2. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Claim 2 clm-347b057b26a2cb99 quantitative
a cluster of informal settlements in Nairobi's Kibra area of roughly 2.5 km²
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The case record gives Kibera's size as 2.5 square kilometres.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Claim 3 clm-139904ce4d409238 descriptive
were trained on GPS handsets by the GroundTruth Initiative and surveyed their own neighbourhood in under a month
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The record names Hagen and Maron of GroundTruth, describes GPS-based data collection by the trained youth, and states the first digital map was produced in less than a month.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Claim 4 clm-7bb32e7834e1ee01 quantitative
The survey was imported into OpenStreetMap in January 2010
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The OpenStreetMap community page records the import of the Map Kibera data on 11 January 2010.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenStreetMap Wiki — Nairobi (Map Kibera import)
Claim 5 clm-69d1ecd89cb739ff descriptive
water points, toilets, clinics, schools, pharmacies and security black spots
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The record lists water access, toilets, schools and pharmacies on the first map, clinics among the points of interest, and the community-mapped crime 'Black Spots'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Claim 6 clm-9e97ec9e22c61816 descriptive
Map Kibera Trust, run from Kibera, later repeated the method in Mathare and Mukuru and added an SMS reporting site and a video news channel
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The operator states it replicated its model in Mathare and Mukuru and uses SMS and video; Participedia describes the SMS-based Voice of Kibera and the Kibera News Network video channel; Pánek notes the project is still based in Kibera.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Map Kibera Trust — About (operator)
  2. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
  3. Pánek and Sobotová (2015), Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries — author's summary
Claim 7 clm-ccb99c35ffa063a0 descriptive
Digital Matatus mapped a transport network into GTFS and was university-led
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
MIT describes Digital Matatus as a joint effort of MIT, Columbia University and the University of Nairobi that transferred matatu route data to GTFS.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. MIT News — Digital Matatus project makes the invisible visible (26 Aug 2015)
Claim 8 clm-55292b2ff4b1a0f7 descriptive
The founding claim that Kibera was blank — a blank spot or a forest on official maps — is the project's own framing, widely repeated since
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The operator describes Kibera as previously a blank spot on the map, and Tactical Tech's case note repeats the 'blank spot or a forest on official maps' framing without citing a survey record.
Caveat
No source tested the claim against Kenyan government survey records.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Tactical Technology Collective — 10 tactics remixed: Map Kibera, Kenya
  2. Map Kibera Trust — About (operator)
Claim 9 clm-ac92a86503b8de91 quantitative
the 2009 census counted 170,070 people across the eight locations that form Kibera
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The article reports the 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census figure of 170,070 across the eight locations forming Kibera.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Daily Nation — Myth shattered: Kibera numbers fail to add up
Claim 10 clm-b242eaf733912cb3 quantitative
against circulating estimates ranging from half a million to over a million
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The Nation cites claims of half a million, a million and two million residents; Participedia itself states over 900,000.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Daily Nation — Myth shattered: Kibera numbers fail to add up
  2. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Claim 11 clm-861f07c18610ceee quantitative
The most recent field mapping this atlas could confirm is from 2024
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The September 2024 talk describes current-day Kibera, where mappers are mapping street lights, waste disposal and schools.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. State of the Map 2024, Nairobi — Mapping Kenya: 15 Years of Map Kibera and beyond
Claim 12 clm-32ae49545820fe7d descriptive
street-light mapping was followed by new street lights in Kibera
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The project's own talk abstract states it.
Caveat
Self-reported by the project.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. State of the Map 2024, Nairobi — Mapping Kenya: 15 Years of Map Kibera and beyond
Claim 13 clm-0e46df8be82a13fb descriptive
mapping of waste management in Mukuru led to the placement of waste bins
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The project's own talk abstract states it.
Caveat
Self-reported by the project.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. State of the Map 2024, Nairobi — Mapping Kenya: 15 Years of Map Kibera and beyond
Claim 15 clm-8967a50180793751 quantitative
KSh 37 million secured from the Ministry of Education for Kibera schools and a police post established after crime black spots were mapped
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The case record, citing Hagen (2017) and Map Kibera (2010), reports 37 million shillings from the Ministry of Education for Kibera high schools and a new police post six months after black spots were mapped.
Caveat
Both figures trace back to the project's own literature.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Claim 16 clm-1b90138095668790 quantitative
the underlying 2017 Making All Voices Count report was written by Erica Hagen, the project's co-founder
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The publication page names Erica Hagen as one of the initiators of Map Kibera and the author of the paper.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Making All Voices Count / IDS — Open mapping from the ground up: learning from Map Kibera (2017)
Claim 17 clm-820681fdf3281c8d descriptive
The data sits in OpenStreetMap under the ODbL, an open licence that anyone may reuse with attribution
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The OSM Foundation states that data extracted from OpenStreetMap after September 2012 is licensed under ODbL 1.0.
Caveat
The 2010 import predates the licence change and was contributed as public-domain data.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenStreetMap Foundation — Licence
Claim 18 clm-7d5098cd3cb49dcd descriptive
The recurring academic criticism is that the step from map to intervention is asserted rather than demonstrated
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The case record, citing Hagen (2017) and Gigler & Bailur (2014), names as one of the biggest critiques that little evidence links interventions to Map Kibera.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Participedia — Map Kibera case record
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-09-27-baseline effective 2026-09-27 · created 2026-09-27

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:5b6bc3cf3fda05bb8f279dcf133aa5ed0a7d3a107c2b389c8beafb060f29fc13
18
of 18 claims mapped
10
source dossiers
6
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Map Kibera Trust, founded by the GroundTruth Initiative
Actor types
civil-society
Funding model
grant
Funding description
Jumpstart International at launch; UNICEF for the second phase; later donor grants
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

10 source dossiers

Map Kibera Trust — About (operator) mapkibera.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-b5aebb1e36222455
Publisher
Name not classified · mapkibera.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The operator's own description: launched in 2009 with young residents creating the first digital map of Kibera, later replicated in Mathare and Mukuru; a citizen mapping, SMS, blogging and video project. The page carries no dates.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
State of the Map 2024, Nairobi — Mapping Kenya: 15 Years of Map Kibera and beyond 2024.stateofthemap.org · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-287e87728e0ada35
Publisher
Name not classified · 2024.stateofthemap.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2024-09-07
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The project's own September 2024 conference session, and the source for the street-light, waste-bin and school-solar outcomes. It is the project's account, not an evaluation.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Participedia — Map Kibera case record participedia.net · 8 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-2ba958f9fbbfb0f1
Publisher
Name not classified · participedia.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-12-09
Updated
2022-05-09
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Case record carrying the founding detail (late 2009, Hagen and Maron of GroundTruth, Jumpstart International funding, 13 mappers, first map in under a month, a UNICEF-funded second phase), the KSh 37 million Ministry of Education and police-post claims, and the recorded criticism that evidence linking the mapping to interventions is limited.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Pánek and Sobotová (2015), Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries — author's summary geoparticipation.wordpress.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-078a21ddec87f71b
Publisher
Name not classified · geoparticipation.wordpress.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2015-04-24
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The author's summary of the article: an independent academic comparison of two Nairobi mapping projects: the community-based Map Kibera proved more sustainable than the researcher-led 'Map Kibera Project', which used closed formats and was led by Western researchers. Also the source for the general finding that the more demanding the technology, the less a community can take part. It does not address whether any authority used the data.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Making All Voices Count / IDS — Open mapping from the ground up: learning from Map Kibera (2017) makingallvoicescount.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-d5e3b46feab7b964
Publisher
Name not classified · makingallvoicescount.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2017-10-03
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Co-founder Erica Hagen's 2017 study of the project, based on interviews with staff, participants and data users; it reports increased resources and targeting by government and NGOs, and is not independent.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
OpenStreetMap Foundation — Licence osmfoundation.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-76b9b903d62ec737
Publisher
Name not classified · osmfoundation.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Data extracted from OpenStreetMap after September 2012 is under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0, with attribution and share-alike; before that, CC BY-SA 2.0. The 2010 Kibera import predates the transition and was described at the time as public-domain data contributed to OSM.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Daily Nation — Myth shattered: Kibera numbers fail to add up nation.africa · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-3bec0a91b81ae3a5
Publisher
Name not classified · nation.africa
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2010-09-03
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports the 2009 census count of 170,070 across the eight locations forming Kibera and the census chief's statement that informal-settlement populations had been exaggerated.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Tactical Technology Collective — 10 tactics remixed: Map Kibera, Kenya informationactivism.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ca4bd55181549871
Publisher
Name not classified · informationactivism.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Tactical Tech's case note: dates the first map to November 2009, names Hagen and Maron and the thirteen participants with hand-held GPS, and records the four mapped categories and the 'blank spot or a forest on official maps' framing. The page carries no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
OpenStreetMap Wiki — Nairobi (Map Kibera import) wiki.openstreetmap.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e93ef678b6f8cc99
Publisher
Name not classified · wiki.openstreetmap.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The OpenStreetMap community's Nairobi page records the date the Map Kibera data entered OpenStreetMap and that it was contributed as public-domain data. A continuously edited wiki page.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
MIT News — Digital Matatus project makes the invisible visible (26 Aug 2015) news.mit.edu · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-edb76fac1428b626
Publisher
Name not classified · news.mit.edu
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2015-08-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-27
Dossier created
2026-09-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

MIT's account of Digital Matatus as a joint project of MIT, Columbia University and the University of Nairobi that converted matatu route data to GTFS.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Known limits of this file
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Map Kibera — Residents Surveying an Informal Settlement into OpenStreetMap” — Nairobi, Kenya. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/nairobi-map-kibera/ (last verified 2026-09-27). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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