Nairobi Maps

Layers

A layer is one kind of information drawn on the map, such as wards, rivers or roads. You can turn each one on or off.

• Open the list: click Layers in the map controls, or press L. (M opens the separate reference menu, not this list.)
• Turn a layer on or off: click its name in the list. City Boundary and Wards are open to everyone, with no account needed — City Boundary is on when you arrive, and Wards is there to tick on whenever you want it. The rest need a paid plan, and you will be told which one.
• Ward maps: click a ward. If maps have been filed for it — a drawn map, the boundary as a PDF — the popup and the details panel list them with their size, and offer Buy Ward Map at Ksh 2,500: one payment unlocks every file listed for that ward, for good. If nothing is on file yet, Request Ward Map asks our team to find one, at no charge, and you are told when it lands. Images open in the same viewer as survey plans, so you can zoom, pan and turn them the right way up.
• Groups: layers are sorted into groups such as Administrative, Cadastre, Population, Hydrology and Transport.
• Legend: shows what the colours on the map mean.
• Comments: each layer has a speech-bubble button where you and other members can leave notes about that layer. You need to be signed in to read them or add one.
• Your own data: Upload in the layers panel adds a file of your own to the map, so you can see it against everything else here. Uploads are a Gold and Platinum feature.

Land parcels

• You must zoom in to level 16 or closer. Below that the parcels stay hidden, because there are too many to draw at once.
• Anyone signed in can see the shapes of parcels. To see the details (plot number, LR number, size, block, sub-county) you need a Gold or Platinum plan.
• Zoning rules come with the parcel. Click a parcel and the popup shows the zone it falls inside, with the maximum floors, ground coverage, plot ratio and smallest allowed plot. You do not need to turn the DC Policy layer on first — turn it on only if you want to see the zone boundaries drawn.
• Coordinates: the popup also shows the parcel's centre point as latitude and longitude. Click the numbers to select them, so you can paste them into a phone map or a GPS.

Parcel details panel

In a parcel popup, click View all details to open the panel on the right. It shows everything the popup had to leave out.

• Full zoning: including the written planning notes for the zone, which are too long to fit in the popup.
• What can be built: the floor area, footprint, floors and number of homes allowed on that parcel, worked out for you. Available from Silver up. Two things are worth knowing about this figure. The number of floors a zone lists is usually the most it allows, on its largest plots — the policy sets floors by plot size, so a smaller plot gets fewer. The map reads that rule and shows the number for the plot you clicked, and tells you which step it used. Some zones also set different terms for plots fronting a named road; where that applies, the panel says so and quotes the sentence it came from, so you can check it yourself.
• Plots under 0.05 ha. If the parcel is smaller than 0.05 ha, the panel says so plainly: it cannot be subdivided, cannot be densified, and cannot be developed for more than one home, whatever the zone would otherwise allow. A change of use to densification is not granted at that size. This is not unusual — about three parcels in five across Nairobi are below it.
• Parcels that cross two zones. Some parcels sit across a zoning boundary. Where that happens the panel tells you which other zone it reaches into, and which one the figures shown belong to, so you can check with the county before relying on them. Roughly one parcel in seventy is affected.
• How it compares. A line tells you the typical plot size in that zone and how yours compares — useful for knowing whether you are slightly short of a minimum or nowhere near it.
• Try a different size. Under the buildable figures there is a box where you can type another plot size and watch the numbers change. Use it to test what joining two plots together would allow. The zone's own rules stay exactly as they are — only the size changes — and the 0.05 ha rule still applies, so this is also how you find out whether combining two small plots gets you over that line.
• Copy attributes: copies the parcel details, the zoning and the coordinates as plain text you can paste anywhere.
• Print PDF: makes a report, at most two pages, with a map picture of the parcel, a cross mark on its centre point, the parcel details, the zoning rules, and the same notes the panel shows you — the 0.05 ha rule, any crossing of zones, and what can be built. It is the panel on paper, so it will not say something different from the screen you printed it from.

Airport layers

Layers in the Aviation group hold several surfaces stacked on top of each other, such as the approach and take-off surfaces around a runway. Each surface gets its own colour and its own tick box under the layer name, so you can show one at a time instead of all of them at once. Because these surfaces slope and stack above each other, the 3D & Aviation tab of this guide covers how to see them properly in the 3D view.

Survey blocks and their gazetted boundaries

The Survey Blocks layer shows the registration blocks parcels are numbered within. Click one and the details panel adds two things the map itself cannot show: a link to the Survey Plan (RIMS) sheets for that block, and the block's gazetted boundary description — the official metes-and-bounds text, the one that reads "commences at co-ordinate … thence North West …".

Those descriptions run to several thousand characters, so the panel opens on the first sentence — enough to see which block it is and where its traverse starts — followed by a ……. you click to read the rest in place. It sits at the bottom of the panel so the block name, number and status stay at the top where you can scan them.

Contour lines

Contour lines is a tick at the bottom of the Basemap list. It draws elevation contours over whatever background you are using. Heavier lines mark every fifth and every tenth contour, which is what makes the shape of the ground readable. Tap or hover a line to read its height in metres. Contours appear from zoom level 11 — zoom in if the map looks unchanged. The 3D view has the same contours with the heights written along the lines.

Parcel outlines and the background

If you are not signed in, the map opens on satellite and draws parcel outlines in yellow, which is the pairing that reads best over imagery. Switch the background yourself at any time and the map stops changing it for you. The outline colour follows whatever is underneath — yellow over satellite and the dark map, black over the light street map — so it stays visible either way.

Background map

The Basemap button opens a short list. Pick one and the map swaps underneath everything else you have turned on.

• Map: the plain street map.
• Satellite: aerial photographs.
• Terrain & trails: a topographic background showing hills, parks and paths.
• Blank: a plain white page with no map underneath. Handy when you only want to see the parcel or zoning lines on their own, or want a clean printout.
• Contour lines: a tick rather than a background. It draws elevation lines over whichever map you are using, from zoom 11. Tap a line to read its height.
• Dark or light: use the theme button in the top menu. The plain street map changes to match.

Weather forecast

The cloud button on the right (or press W) lays a three-day forecast over the whole map, with a timeline along the bottom. It covers everything you can see, however far you zoom out.

• Wind: moving streaks show which way the wind blows and how hard — colour is speed. Rain and Temperature paint the map instead.
• Lines: adds smooth contour lines of temperature or air pressure on top, labelled in °C or hPa. Turn them off if they get in the way.
• Timeline: press play (or Space) to watch the next three days go by, drag the slider to any hour, or use the ← and → keys. The label tells you how far ahead you are looking. The small arrow shrinks the panel to one line when you want more of the map; the × closes the forecast.
• The forecast is for Nairobi as a whole — the weather model works in squares about 10 km across, so it will not show a shower over one estate and sun over the next. It is refreshed every couple of hours.

Finding a parcel

Use the search box in the top menu to find a plot of land. Press / to jump straight to it.

You can search using any of these:

• LR number — for example 209/12345
• Plot or parcel number — for example Nairobi Block 181/2504
• FR number — the number of the survey plan
• Block name or registration block
• Sub-county name

You do not need to type it exactly. Extra words like "plot" or "L.R." are ignored, and spaces and slashes are treated the same.

• Click a result and the map flies to that parcel and highlights it.
• Results closer to the middle of your current view are shown first.
• You must be signed in to search. How many results you get depends on your plan. On the free plan there is also a limit on how many searches you can do each day. When you reach it, the search box tells you.

Searching inside a layer

Open the attribute table (press T) to see all the records for a layer in a list, and filter them.

Tools

Open the toolbar at the bottom of the screen to use these. Most of the tools need a Gold or Platinum plan. Four do not. Measure, the Cassini converter and Density are free for everyone, even without an account. Terrain profile works on Silver and above. Each tool below says which plan it needs. The toolbar scrolls sideways, so swipe along it to reach the tools past the edge.

• Measure (free on every plan): click points on the map to measure a distance, or close the shape to measure an area.
• Grid: turns a coordinate grid on and off over the map.
• Bookmarks: save the view you are looking at so you can come back to it. If you are signed in, your bookmarks are saved to your account and work on any device. If you are not signed in, they are only saved in that browser.
• Parcel report: pick a parcel and get a PDF about it. The report includes the parcel details and the zoning rules that apply to it.
• Density: works out how much can be built on a plot. Give it a plot size, or click Pick a parcel on the map and it will measure one for you. It fills in the plot ratio and ground coverage from the zoning rules, then shows the floor area, the building footprint, how many floors and roughly how many homes that comes to. It also warns you if the answer breaks the zone's floor limit or if the plot is smaller than the zone allows. Free on every plan, including without an account.
• Time slider: has two parts. The layer timeline moves through the years and switches each group of layers to the version that was in force at that date — Zoning 2004, then Zoning 2023, then DC Policy 2026, and the 2009 and 2019 census layers alongside them. Press Play to step through the changes, and Restore layers to put back what you had on before. Below it, the feature filter works inside a single layer that has dates of its own, showing what existed up to a year, in that year only, or from that year onwards.
• Terrain profile: shows how the ground rises and falls along a line. Click Start drawing points, click along the route on the map, then double-click to finish and press Generate profile. The chart gives the length, the lowest and highest ground, the average, and the total climb and drop. The line stays on the map so you can read the chart against it, and you can copy the figures or export them as a CSV. Available from Silver up.
• Legend & symbology: colours a layer by one of its own values. This turns a flat set of shapes into something you can read at a glance. Categorized gives one colour per value — use it for words, such as a zone name. Graduated splits numbers into bands, and you choose how many bands and which colours — use it for counts, areas and densities.
• Spatial tools: two ways to search the data. Both work in your browser, on the layers you have switched on. Spatial Query finds things from one layer that sit inside the shapes of another, or inside a shape you drew yourself. SQL Query lets you set a condition on a single layer, using SELECT, FROM and WHERE. Either way, the matches are highlighted on the map and listed below. You can export them as GeoJSON or CSV. The list shows the first 100, but the export holds every match.
• Heatmap / cluster: shows the pattern in a layer of points when there are too many markers to read one by one. Heatmap shows where the points are thickest. Cluster groups nearby points into numbered circles, which split apart as you zoom in. Use Cluster when you still need to see the points themselves.
• Nearest facility: answers "what is closest to here". Choose the facility layer and how many results you want, click Click on map to pick location, then click the spot. The results are listed with distances and marked on the map. Distances are straight-line, not along roads, so read them as a ranking rather than a travel time.
• Swipe compare: puts one layer either side of a draggable divider, so you can see exactly where two of them differ. Good for reading Zoning 2004 against Zoning 2023, or the 2009 census against 2019. Pick a layer for each side and press Compare, then drag the round handle — or focus it and use the arrow keys. Both layers must already be switched on. Clear removes the divider.
• Data compare: puts two layers side by side and sums them up together. It works best when both layers use the same field names — for example, the same census figure in two different years.
• Export data: saves part of a layer as a file. Pick the layer, or your own drawn shapes. You can narrow it down with the filter, or tick Only features in current view to save just what is on screen. A running count tells you how many things you are about to save. GeoJSON opens in QGIS and most other map software. CSV opens in a spreadsheet. Exports need Platinum.
• Geocode address: type a place or address and the map moves to it.
• Reverse-geocode click: the opposite — click a spot and it names the nearest place. Both use an outside service, so they need a connection and do better on established places than on new estates.
• Map embed: generates the code to put this map inside another web page. Set the width and height, press Preview to check it, then Copy code.
• Cassini converter (free on every plan): converts between latitude and longitude (WGS84) and the Cassini coordinates used on Kenyan survey records, in either metres or feet. Show on map drops a marker at the converted point, and it names the survey block the point falls in. The scanned RIMS sheet for that block stays a Gold and Platinum extra. The Cassini converter guide explains the datum shift and works through examples.

Sharing and printing

• Share: the address in your browser's address bar always matches what you are looking at. It remembers the position, the zoom, the background map and which layers are on. Copy it to share the exact view with someone else.
• Print or export: press P. The coordinate grid is added automatically, along with the date and your name.
• Fullscreen: press F to fill the whole screen.

Ask AI

The Ask AI button opens a chat you can ask questions in, such as where a place is or what a zoning rule means. It knows which layers you have turned on and where you are looking, so you can ask about what is on your screen. It can also offer to move the map or switch a layer on for you.

Ask AI needs a Silver plan or higher, and there is a limit on how many questions you can ask each month.

If the assistant is not connected, zoning questions are still answered — read straight out of the Development Control Policy 2026 and quoted rather than summarised. It says that is what it is doing, and it tells you plainly when a question is one it cannot answer that way.

The 3D view

Press the 3D button to tilt the map into a three-dimensional view with real terrain and building heights. Press the button again to go back to the flat map. The 3D view needs a Platinum plan.

Moving around. Dragging moves the map. To tilt and turn instead, press the orbit button in the top-left corner — the one showing a ring — and then drag normally. Press it again to go back to moving the map. If you prefer the keyboard, holding Ctrl (or ⌘ on a Mac) while you drag always tilts, whichever mode you are in.

The small map in the corner. Once you are tilted over, it is easy to lose track of where you are. The little map at the bottom-right always faces north and shows a green wedge for the direction you are looking. Press the − on it to shrink it out of the way, and again to bring it back.

Choosing what to show in 3D

The layers button inside the 3D view opens a panel in two parts. Scene at the top switches buildings, terrain relief and the parcel cadastre on or off. Below that, every map layer is grouped under a theme — Administrative, Cadastre, Planning, Population, Transport, Hydrology, Infrastructure and Aviation — the same themes used on the flat map.

Themes start closed, so the list stays short. Click a theme name to open it. The number beside each theme tells you how many layers it holds, and turns into something like 2/4 when some of them are switched on.

Obstacle Limitation Surfaces

Around every aerodrome is a set of invisible surfaces that buildings and other structures must stay below. They are defined by ICAO Annex 14 and they are what an aviation height clearance is checked against. Because they slope and sit at different heights above each other, they only really make sense in 3D — which is where the Obstacle Limitation Surfaces panel comes in, at the bottom left of the 3D view.

• Aerodrome: pick one of the five covered — Jomo Kenyatta International (HKJK), the proposed second JKIA runway, Wilson (HKNW), Eastleigh airbase and Northlands. The map flies to it and the surfaces are drawn at their real heights above sea level.
• Surfaces list: each surface has a colour and a tick box. Turn them off one at a time to see inside the stack — the outer horizontal and conical surfaces are large and sit over everything else. The line under the list gives the height range the whole set covers.
• Vertical exaggeration: the surfaces at JKIA span about 315 m of height spread across 15 km of ground, so at true scale they look almost flat. Drag this up to stretch the heights and make the shape readable. It does not change the numbers, only the drawing.
• Frame it: puts the whole aerodrome back in view.

The Contour lines + heights tick box in the Scene group draws elevation contours with their values written along them, which is useful for seeing how the surfaces sit against the ground they protect.

Flying the approach

Fly the approach sends an aircraft through the surfaces so you can see the shape of them from a pilot's point of view. One pass runs the whole cycle: a descent on the standard 3° approach slope, touchdown, the roll along the runway, and the climb out at the other end. It stops on its own at the end; press the button again at any point to stop it early.

Camera picks where you watch from. Each view answers a different question:

• Side profile (the one it starts on) flies alongside the aircraft. This is the one to use if you want to see how close the aircraft comes to the buildings and ground below it — you are looking across at it, so heights line up.
• Chase follows from behind. Good for seeing the line it flies; less good for heights, because everything it is passing over is behind it.
• Tower stands still beside the runway and turns to watch, the way someone on the ground would. The aircraft comes down through a view that does not move with it.
• Free lets go of the camera, so you can drag, tilt and zoom the map yourself while the aircraft flies.

Camera distance sets how far away it sits — pull it back for a wide view against the surfaces, or close in to follow the approach. Watch from the other side swaps which side the profile view watches from. While an aircraft is flying, the small map in the corner draws its whole path from above, with a red dot showing where it has got to.

One thing worth knowing: the aircraft flies above the approach surface, not along it. That surface is a height limit for things on the ground, not a flight path — an aircraft descends more steeply than the surface rises, so it clears it the whole way in. Seeing that gap is the point of drawing them together. The aircraft is also drawn larger than life so you can pick it out at this scale.

Saving a 3D view

The print button inside the 3D view saves what you are looking at as a PNG image, with the map credits added.

Accounts and plans

Some parts of the map are open to everyone signed in. Others need a paid plan. There are four plans: Public (free), Silver, Gold and Platinum.

• Signing up: create an account, then wait for an administrator to approve it. You will get an email when it is approved.
• Parcel outlines: everyone, including without an account, at zoom 16 or closer. The details behind them stay Gold and Platinum.
• Without an account you can look at 25 areas of the cadastre a day — roughly a neighbourhood each. Panning and zooming around one area is free, and going back to an area you have already seen costs nothing; only moving somewhere new counts. After that the map asks you to create a free account, which removes the limit.
• Old Nairobi Maps: any signed-in account above Public, so Silver and up.
• Ward maps: any signed-in account, Public included, at Ksh 2,500 per ward. The list is visible to everyone; the files open once that ward is paid for on your account.
• Full parcel search, attribute tables and Ask AI: Silver and above. Ask AI is capped per month — 100 on Silver, 1,000 on Gold, unlimited on Platinum.
• Parcel details (LR number, area, block), the rest of the toolbar, custom layer uploads, Survey Plans (RIMS) and Survey Plans (FR): Gold and Platinum.
• Measure, the Cassini converter and Density: free on every plan, including without an account.
• Terrain profile: Silver and above.
• 3D view, exports and downloads and API access: Platinum.
• Printing: 1 a day on Public, 5 a day on Silver, unlimited on Gold and Platinum.

Four things are charged on top of a plan rather than included in it: individual Survey Plans (FR), individual zone maps (Platinum, per zone), ward maps (any plan, Ksh 2,500 per ward), and the Parcels Cadastre and DC Policy 2026 full datasets.

Getting a survey plan for one parcel

A survey plan (FR) needs two things. First, a Gold or Platinum plan. Second, a payment for that one document. Upgrading your plan on its own does not open them. The steps are:

• Click the parcel on the map and open its details.
• Click Buy Survey. Next to the price you will see the file size — these are scanned sheets, so a few megabytes is normal and worth knowing before you download one on mobile data.
• Pay the amount shown, then send proof as instructed.
• An administrator confirms the payment. You get a notification, and that one survey plan opens for you.
• It opens in a full-screen viewer: scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move around, and two rotate buttons (or press R) for the scans that came in sideways or upside down. Save image keeps a copy the way you turned it.
• If nothing is on file for that parcel, the panel says Survey Plan — not on file and offers Request Plan instead. That is not a charge — it asks our team to find the plan. About one parcel in eight has no FR number at all, so there is nothing to match it to automatically. You are notified once the plan has been found and added.

Downloads

Platinum accounts can download the map data as files. Most layers are included in the plan. Two are not: the Parcels Cadastre and DC Policy 2026 files are Ksh 10,000 each, paid once, on top of your plan. After that the file is yours to download whenever you like. An administrator unlocks it on your account once the payment is confirmed, the same way a plan is activated.

Downloads are Platinum only. Silver and Gold can read everything on the map and print it, but cannot export the data as files. The full price list, including these two extras, is on the Pricing page.

Your account page

My Account in the top menu is where everything about your own account lives. It is split into five parts so you are not scrolling to find one thing:

• Overview — your plan, when it renews, and Pick up where you left off: the parcels you last opened, each one a tap away from being back on the map.
• My work — everything you have saved or downloaded, and a history of what you have done.
• Requests — survey plans you have asked us to find, with a progress track showing how far along each one is.
• Plan & billing — what you pay, your payment history and your invoices.
• Settings — your name, photo, password, email preferences and notifications.

Ward maps

Click a ward on the Wards layer. If maps are on file the popup lists them and offers Buy Ward Map at Ksh 2,500. Click it, pay the amount shown, and an administrator confirms it; that ward's maps then open for you whenever you like — every file, not a single view — and an invoice appears on your account page. Any signed-in plan can buy one.

If nothing is on file, click Request Ward Map instead. That is not a charge: it asks our team to find the map, and you are notified when it has been filed.

Zone maps

Some Development Control zones have a drawn map of the zone itself. Click a zone on the DC Policy 2026 layer and it appears in the details panel, if one has been filed for that zone.

Zone maps are a Platinum feature, charged per zone at Ksh 5,000 each — the same idea as survey plans being charged per document. Click Buy Zone Map, pay the amount shown, and an administrator confirms it. You then get one download of that zone's map, and an invoice appears on your account page.

Connecting QGIS or ArcGIS (WFS)

A downloaded file is correct on the day you download it and slowly goes stale after that. If you work in desktop GIS every day, connect to the map instead of copying it: Nairobi Maps runs an OGC Web Feature Service at https://nairobimaps.com/wfs.php.

In QGIS choose Layer ▸ Add Layer ▸ Add WFS Layer ▸ New, paste that address, and add ?key= followed by your key. The parcels, zoning, DC Policy 2026, wards, survey blocks, population, rivers and roads layers all appear as feature types you can drag onto the canvas.

• It only fetches what you are looking at, so panning around Nairobi does not pull the whole 162 MB cadastre.
• It is read-only. Editing in QGIS changes your copy, never the live map.
• Access is by API key, issued per organisation rather than per person, and a key can be limited to particular layers. Email nairobi@nairobimaps.com to request one.
• Budget the key generously — QGIS spends a request every time you pan or zoom, not just when you connect.

Notifications

The bell in the top menu shows messages for you, such as a survey plan being approved. Administrators also see system alerts in the same bell, above their own messages.

When your plan runs out

You will be reminded in the days before your account expires. When it does expire, the paid parts stop working until it is renewed, but your account and saved bookmarks stay.

Keyboard shortcuts

These work when you are not typing in a box.

Tip: press ? to reopen this guide at any time.