Map Kibera

Map Kibera is on the verge of starting. We’re building a high caliber team of young people from Kibera to map, but they’re still going to need support to get started with the OpenStreetMap software. That’s where I’m hoping technical folks in Nairobi — can play a key part in making the project work well.

Are you experienced in software development, GIS, and OSM? Come help us out!

Here’s the rough plan for the next three weeks…

On Monday, November 9, we are having a day long kick-off Mapping Party at Carolina for Kibera offices. This will cover mostly surveying, which I think can be quickly grasped without too much help. But it’s going to be a fun introduction, and if you’re interested to come please please contact us.

On Tuesday, we’ll be in the offices of SODNet, for training on OpenStreetMap software. We’ll take the data collected the day before, and teach people here to use the OSM editor, JOSM. This is where it would be great to have your support. Even if you haven’t contributed to OSM before, your experience is going to allow to quickly get up to speed, and help others, or at least help to communicate my instruction in more detail.

From Wednesday until the end of the month, we’ll have a daily cycle of collecting data in the morning, and editing in the afternoon. In the afternoons, especially during the first week, it would be great to have your support by working directly with mappers and helping them edit.

SO please let me know soon if you are interested in taking part, and what your availability would look like. Our email is contact [at] mapkibera [dot] org

Today was going to be our first meeting with the Soweto Savings Scheme, a group that organized with help from Pamoja Trust and Umande Trust to build capital within a community usually excluded from the finance world. The group has evolved into a strong community network, and our partners at Pamoja encouraged us to reach out to them directly to communicate on Map Kibera, as there were bound to be many questions and concerns about a mapping project in Kibera. I was honored to have the chance to sit with them, and we were earlier rapidly organizing logistics to get down to the initial meeting point at Laini Saba Stage.

George from Pamoja just now called to say the meeting was postponed, because the Soweto Savings Scheme members were instead going to visit and show solidarity with neighbors that had lost family members in conflicts in Kibera yesterday and today. We want to express our solidarity as well, and hope that calm can be present in this difficult time.

AP reports a dispute in Kibera has erupted into violence. Apparently, the conflict began between a church and vendors that had erected stalls that obstructed the path to the church, a common enough seeming conflict in extremely cramped Kibera. AP says the church hired Nubian youths to destroy the structures, built by Luhya traders, and this as expected had tragic ends. The interplay of ethnic, religious, and spatial stresses here are complicated, and from this report it’s not entirely clear where, who, what, and why this happened. Hoping to find out more as we talk to our colleagues here.

Yesterday we had noticed worrying smoke rising out of the center of Kibera, northwest of us as we came back into Nairobi along Langata Road. The wire photos show burning structures along the railway line, leading me to guess that the location was around either the villages of Mashimoni or Kambi Muru.

For Map Kibera, an urgent reminder of the challenges and needs that meet our effort to make the invisible visible in Kibera.

Update

Capital FM and East African Standard have more details. The incident happened a little further west, in Kisumu Ndogo village.

We’re throwing a mapping party tomorrow, October 28, on invitation from ActionAid. Rock on!

We’ll start at 10am with presentations on Map Kibera and OpenStreetMap, quickly followed by mapping around Westlands with GPS units and Walking Papers. We’ll meet back for lunch, and some editing as group, and discussion about the experience and possibilities for open data.

The location is MS Kenya, on Rhapta Road in Westlands, “just after Liza Apartments”.

The invitation is open to anyone in Nairobi interested in learning about Map Kibera and OpenStreetMap. Send your RSVP to , or call at +254 (0) 724899738.