Kenyans Collaborate to Map Kibera
With a population of around one million inhabitants, Kibera is widely known as Africa’s largest slum and counted among the biggest on earth. It’s also one of the most studied slums in Africa, given its close proximity to the center of a modern city, Nairobi, and the headquarters of UN-HABITAT, the United Nations’ agency for human settlements.
Despite the fact that many organizations have collected data on various aspects of Kibera, it has yet to be aggregated and shared as a public resource. As a result, the area remains a blank spot on Kenyan maps and knowledge of traffic patterns, housing layouts, health, water and community resources are largely unknown both to outsiders and the residents themselves.
Map Kibera is a collaborative project that aims to fill this gap by producing a free and open digital map using OpenStreetMap, a user-edited map of the world. This November, a group of twelve young residents of Kibera will be trained in current mapping techniques using off-the-shelf GPS receivers and free software developed for use with OpenStreetMap. The group is expected to map Kibera over a two-week period, process the raw data and make it available to the world. The resulting information will be freely available to residents, NGOs, private companies and others interested in working with and for Kibera.
The project is significant because it provides primary, open source data that may be used to illustrate living conditions in Kibera. “Without basic knowledge of the geography of Kibera it is impossible to have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of residents of Kibera,” says Mikel Maron of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.
Many organizations, including the Kenyan government, the UN and local and international NGOs, have their own, often opposing, views for how to alleviate the poor living conditions for Kibera’s residents. One one hand, proponents of improving the slum look to provide safe drinking water, sanitation, wastewater and solid waste management. Others, notably Kenyan Prime Minister and local MP Raila Odinga, have plans to bulldoze the slum and relocate its inhabitants. Odinga’s plan hit a snag when residents and landlords took their property rights and land ownership claims to court. Urban planners have also expressed concerns for the project, saying that it risks repeating mistakes of the past. In similar relocation efforts, poor families have sub-let their apartments to middle-class families and moved back into the slums.
Map Kibera is led by Mikel Maron of OpenStreetMap and supported by JumpStart International. Partners include Jubal Harpster of WhereCampAfrica, the Social Development Network, Pamoja Trust, Hands on Kenya and Carolina for Kibera.
Project website: www.mapkibera.org
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