I grew up in Kibera. Come and walk it with me.
My name is Samuel Omondi. Everybody calls me Sammy. I have been guiding here for 4 years and I still live here. The walk takes three hours, and half of what you pay keeps the Kibera Kids Library open.
- How long
- 3 hours, on foot
- Price
- $25 per person
- Groups of 6+
- $20 per person
- Meet at
- Prestige Plaza, Ngong Road, Nairobi
- Book at least
- 2 hours ahead
- Group size
- Any size. I take couples and I take school groups, so tell me how many of you there are.
I am not showing you poverty.
A lot of people photograph Kibera. Not many of them understand it. Most visitors are shown around by somebody who does not live here, and they go home with the same idea they arrived with.
I live here. When we walk, people greet me and I stop, because they are my neighbours. You will see the market, sit down in somebody's house, ride a matatu, and meet the men who make things out of scrap metal.
I also run the Kibera Kids Library. 50 children come there after school to do their homework. This walk is what pays for it.
Kibera Street Tour Experience
Three hours on foot through the neighbourhood I grew up in. The market, somebody's home, a matatu, a boda boda, the craft centre, the gallery, and the library the walk pays for.
The open air market
Stalls under tarpaulin roofs. Maize on the grill, tomatoes and mangoes in piles, secondhand clothes hung wall to wall. I buy my own food here, so nobody gives you a different price because you are a visitor.
A home visit
You go inside somebody's house and you sit down. People tell me afterwards that this is the part they remember. It works because I am a neighbour here and not a company. If a family would rather not that day, we go somewhere else.
The matatu
Our minibuses are painted, named and loud. This is how everybody in Nairobi travels, so you get in the same way everybody else does.
The boda boda
A short ride on the back of a motorbike. It is how most of us cross Kibera. Helmets on, and I tell the rider where we are going.
The craft centre
A workshop, not a souvenir shop. Carving, beadwork, welding out of scrap metal. Buy something if you like it. Nobody expects you to.
The art gallery
Kibera has painters and they are good. One room, canvases wall to wall, and the artists are usually sitting in it. Ask them about their work.
The Kibera Kids Library
The last stop is the reason for all the others. You see the room, you meet the children who come in after school, and you spend some time helping them. Half of what you paid stays here.
50%
of what you pay keeps the Kibera Kids Library open
One room with a painted sun on the wall. It opened on 16 April 2026. 50 children from 4 years old and up come in after school, between 2pm to 8pm, to do their homework and to read.
That is the whole arrangement. It is why it matters that you book me directly.
How to book
There is no booking system. There is me, and there is WhatsApp.
Send me a message
Tell me when you are in Nairobi and how many of you there are. I answer WhatsApp myself.
We agree a day
2 hours notice is enough. No deposit, no booking system, nobody in between.
Meet me at Prestige Plaza
From there we walk. Wear shoes you do not mind getting dusty.