1001 Smart Cities

Permanent project revision

Map Kibera — Residents Surveying an Informal Settlement into OpenStreetMap

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

Current revision. This is the snapshot used by the live entity page.

unreviewed

Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 18 claims and 10 source dossiers.

sha256:5b6bc3cf3fda05bb8f279dcf133aa5ed0a7d3a107c2b389c8beafb060f29fc13
All revisions → Current entity page →

Change set

  • add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.
  • add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.
18
of 18 claims mapped
10
source dossiers
6
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Claims, one by one

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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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 passport
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

Source dossiers and revision state

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
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
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
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • 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.