What Map Kibera does

Map Kibera Trust is a Kenyan nonprofit organization headquartered in Nairobi that operates a citizen-led information and media platform serving residents of informal settlements. Founded in November 2009, it began by creating the first free and open digital map of the Kibera slum, led by young residents using GPS devices and OpenStreetMap, and has since expanded to replicate the model in the Mathare and Mukuru slums. The organization's primary beneficiaries are marginalized slum communities in Nairobi who lack representation on mainstream maps and in mainstream media; secondary users include local NGOs, service providers, government officials, and academic researchers who consume the open datasets for service-delivery planning, advocacy, and research.

Its core products are organized around three methodologies — citizen mapping, citizen media, and citizen advocacy — and include the Map Kibera Interactive Community Map (OpenStreetMap-backed), the Voice of Kibera and Voice of Mathare citizen journalism platforms (built on Ushahidi and WordPress with SMS integration), and the Kibera News Network (KNN) citizen video journalism program. The technical stack is built on open-source civic-tech infrastructure: OpenStreetMap for data publishing, Ushahidi for SMS-enabled reporting, WordPress for blogging, QGIS and ArcGIS for spatial analysis, and MapBox/TileMill for visualization. All mapping data is released as open data, covering schools, clinics, water points, sanitation facilities, police stations, and other amenities across the three slums, organized into thematic layers on security, water and sanitation, health, education, and imagery.

Map Kibera Trust generates no commercial revenue and operates a free, community-led go-to-market model funded almost entirely by institutional grants and donations. Documented funders include JumpStart International (seed), Hivos, UNICEF, Indigo Trust, ATTI, USIP, UN Habitat Youth Fund, Global Giving contributors, Plan Kenya, Carolina for Kibera, and GOAL. Distribution is domestic for community-facing services (wall-painting outreach, local video screenings, SMS campaigns) and global for its open data and online journalism (OpenStreetMap, Voice platforms, YouTube). With approximately eight named core staff and broader volunteer involvement, the organization is a small, grant-funded civic-tech entity rather than a venture-backable commercial business.

Name

Map Kibera

Legal name

Map Kibera Trust

Website

https://mapkibera.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Map Kibera Trust is a Kenyan nonprofit that runs a citizen-led mapping, citizen journalism, and video reporting platform serving marginalized residents of Nairobi's Kibera, Mathare, and Mukuru slums, funded by institutional grants and donations and publishing all data openly via OpenStreetMap.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Information Services

NAICS

Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services (541370), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

GIS & Spatial Data Management Platforms (BPAMANAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Local/Regional News Channels (MPABAIAD), Local & Neighborhood Communities (BPAMABAG)

Keywords

• Community mapping
• Citizen journalism
• Open data mapping
• Digital advocacy
• Slum cartography

Headquarters

HQ city

Nairobi

HQ country

Kenya

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: Map Kibera Trust operates as a nonprofit organization funded primarily through grants from institutional donors and foundations. Key funders include UN Habitat Youth Fund, UNICEF, Indigo Trust, Hivos, and others.
2. Donations: Receives donations through platforms like Global Giving for specific initiatives such as printing and distributing maps in slums.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Map Kibera Trust operates a citizen-led mapping, journalism, and advocacy initiative that produces openly licensed digital maps of informal settlements in Nairobi (Kibera, Mathare, Mukuru) and trains local youth to collect geospatial data and report community news. Outputs include an interactive community map of Kibera, two citizen-journalism sites (Voice of Kibera and Voice of Mathare), and the Kibera News Network reporter pipeline, all made freely available to residents, NGOs, researchers, and public-interest partners.

Product overview

Map Kibera is a citizen information and media project that operates as a platform-plus-programs model. The core offering consists of interactive community mapping using OpenStreetMap, combined with Voice platforms (Voice of Kibera and Voice of Mathare) for citizen journalism via Ushahidi and WordPress, and the Kibera News Network (KNN) for video journalism. These products work together to serve marginalized Nairobi communities: mapping creates geographic data about community resources, Voice platforms enable real-time reporting and news sharing, and KNN provides in-depth video storytelling. All data is published as open data through OpenStreetMap, with thematic mapping available for security, water/sanitation, health, education, and infrastructure. The organization operates in Kibera, Mathare, and Mukuru slums, using citizen mapping, citizen media, and citizen advocacy methodologies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Kibera News Network (KNN): Citizen journalism platform producing video stories and news reporting about Kibera slum.
• Voice of Kibera
• Voice of Mathare

Products and services

• Map Kibera Interactive Community Map Interactive online map of Kibera that combines community-contributed OpenStreetMap data with points of interest (schools, clinics, water points, sanitation facilities, religious institutions, and other landmarks) for use by residents, NGOs, and researchers.
• Voice of Kibera WordPress-based citizen-journalism publication covering daily life, services, and issues in Kibera, written by local youth reporters trained by Map Kibera.
• Voice of Mathare Citizen-journalism site covering Mathare, mirroring the Voice of Kibera model and producing local news written by community-trained reporters.
• Kibera News Network (KNN) Pipeline/network of trained young Kibera residents who report, edit, and publish community news for Voice of Kibera and Map Kibera's advocacy activities.
• Community Mapping Training Program In-community training program that equips local youth with GPS field-mapping, OpenStreetMap editing, and basic GIS (QGIS/ArcGIS) skills to produce and update the Kibera map.

Quantifiable outcome

• Created first free and open digital map of Kibera, transforming a 'blank spot on the map' into visible community information
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• GOALminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013GOAL worked with Map Kibera to map toilet locations and collect data to inform their program to install new sanitation facilities.
• USIP (United States Institute of Peace)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013USIP supported Map Kibera to map and monitor the 2013 Kenyan elections.
• ATTI (African Technology and Transparency Initiative)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011ATTI supported Map Kibera's organizational development and operations in 2011/2012.
• Carolina for Kibera (CFK)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2009CFK provided operational space and support at the very beginning of Map Kibera in 2009. More recently, they worked together to improve sanitation and program mapping in parts of Kibera that CFK serves.
• Plan KenyaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlan Kenya, along with Community Cleaning Services, worked with Map Kibera to map the Mathare slum as part of a Community Led Total Sanitation process.
• UshahidicoreTechnology or IntegrationFrom before Map Kibera started, Ushahidi provided connections in Kenya, a home at the iHub, and financial umbrella for UN Habitat. They most recently worked together on the Uchaguzi election monitoring project.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Mapbox: Commercial mapping platform whose MapBox/TileMill products Map Kibera uses for visualization. Comparable in the underlying geospatial technology stack, though Mapbox is a for-profit, global incumbent rather than a community-led nonprofit.
• Carto (formerly CartoDB): Cloud-based GIS and location data platform serving enterprises and developers. Comparable to Map Kibera's use of GIS tooling for community data visualization, though Carto operates as a commercial incumbent with global customers.
• OpenStreetMap Foundation: The steward of the OpenStreetMap platform where Map Kibera publishes all of its community mapping data. Comparable in that it operates an open, contributor-driven geospatial platform, though its scope is global and infrastructure-focused rather than community-development-focused.

Direct peers

• Ushahidi: Kenya-headquartered civic-tech platform that pioneered SMS-based citizen reporting and crisis mapping — Map Kibera's core technology and integration partner. Both share Kenyan origins, mission-aligned community reporting, and overlapping use of OpenStreetMap and SMS workflows.
• Code for Africa: Pan-African civic-tech and data-journalism initiative that, like Map Kibera, develops citizen reporting platforms, open data tools, and investigative reporting capacity across African newsrooms. Overlaps in mission, African geographic focus, and use of open-source tools.
• Akvo Foundation: International nonprofit that builds open-data tools and project monitoring platforms for development programs. Comparable to Map Kibera in mission, geographic focus on developing regions, and use of open-source digital tools for community-level data collection.
• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT): Global nonprofit mobilizing volunteer mappers to create and update OpenStreetMap data for humanitarian and development response. Directly comparable to Map Kibera in its use of citizen mappers publishing open OSM data, with HOT operating at much larger global scale.
• Slum Dwellers International (SDI): Global network of community-based organizations of the urban poor, supporting community-led data collection, mapping, and upgrading of informal settlements. Highly comparable to Map Kibera in serving the same beneficiaries (slum residents) with community-led data methodologies.

Emerging players

• Premise Data: Data company that crowdsources ground-truth information from smartphone users in emerging markets, including infrastructure and services data. Comparable in using distributed contributors to generate localized observational data for development and government clients.
• BRCK: Nairobi-based civic-tech company focused on connectivity hardware and digital public infrastructure in Africa. Comparable in Kenyan origin, civic-tech mission, and focus on technology access in underserved communities — an adjacent rather than direct overlap with Map Kibera's mapping focus.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/mapkibera
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/mapkibera
• Facebookfacebook.com/group.php?gid=353862420432

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Map Kibera