How walkable is Kibera?
By Oscar Higson-SpenceUpdated
Kibera has a walkability score of 25 out of 100 across the 1 km around its centre, which makes it car-dependent: most errands require a car. It is the 5th most walkable of 5 neighbourhoods ranked in Nairobi, which scores 56 as a whole.
What's within walking distance
55 shops, restaurants, parks and other everyday places are mapped within a 30 minute walk of the centre of Kibera. The nearest grocery is Nakumatt Ngong Road, about 26 minutes away on foot. It earns full or nearly full points for schools. It is weakest for groceries, restaurants & bars, coffee, banks, parks, books & libraries and culture & entertainment.
- Naivas27 min
- Galito's26 min
- Chicken Inn26 min
- Baus Optical18 min
- Zenayla Bridal and Makeup Studio18 min
- NCBA Bank27 min
- Faulu Kenya28 min
- Cheery Children Education Centre5 min
- School of Hope Kenya7 min
- Prestige Cinemas26 min
Measured from the mapped centre of Kibera at -1.3113, 36.7890. Walking times assume 80 m per minute along an estimated street route.
Street layout
Within 800 m of the centre there are about 40 street intersections per km², and blocks average 115 m long. Sparser streets or longer blocks reduce the score by 3%, since they make walks longer than the straight-line distance suggests.
Walkability across Kibera
- 90+
- 70–89
- 50–69
- 25–49
- 0–24
Each hexagon is the score at a point across the 1 km around the centre of Kibera. Rings mark 500 m and 1 km from the centre. Gaps are water or land without streets.
Nearby neighbourhoods in Nairobi
| Neighbourhood | Distance | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Pumwani | 7.1 km | 67 |
| Eastleigh | 7.8 km | 67 |
| Gigiri | 9 km | 52 |
| Korogocho | 13.1 km | 26 |
See every neighbourhood ranked on the Nairobi page.
Questions about walking in Kibera
Is Kibera walkable?
Not very. Kibera in Nairobi has a walkability score of 25 out of 100 across the 1 km around its centre, which makes it car-dependent: most errands require a car.
Is Kibera more walkable than the rest of Nairobi?
Kibera is less walkable than Nairobi as a whole: it scores 25, against 56 for the 5 km around Nairobi's centre. It ranks 5th of the 5 Nairobi neighbourhoods on How Walkable.
What are the most walkable neighbourhoods in Nairobi?
Of the 5 Nairobi neighbourhoods on How Walkable, the most walkable are Eastleigh (67), Pumwani (67) and Gigiri (52).
How is the walkability score of Kibera calculated?
The score counts groceries, restaurants, shops, cafés, banks, parks, schools, libraries and cultural venues within a 30 minute walk, gives nearer places more weight, and deducts up to 20% where streets are sparse or blocks are long. For Kibera it is the average of 57 points spread evenly across the 1 km around its mapped centre, leaving out water and land without streets, using open map data from Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap.
Scores follow a published walkability method, explained in the methodology. Neighbourhood position from Overture Maps, name from Wikidata.