Nairobi Maps – Nairobi parcel search, zoning and maps

Layers

A layer is one kind of information on the map — wards, rivers, roads, zoning and so on. You switch each one on or off.

• Open the list: press Layers on the right of the map, or the L key.
• Switch a layer on or off: tap its name. Wards and City Boundary are free for everyone, even without an account. Wards is on when you arrive, signed in or not; tick City Boundary whenever you want it. The other layers need a paid plan, and the map tells you which one.
• Layers our team adds: the railways, sewers, power lines, riparian buffers, airport surfaces and others are sold one at a time, on any plan. No plan includes them. Each shows its price under its name. Press Buy and pay through WhatsApp. Once we confirm the payment, the layer is yours for good.
• Groups: layers are sorted into groups — Administrative, Cadastre (land parcels), Planning, Earth observation, Population, Hydrology (water) and Transport. Tap a group to open it.
• Each layer’s buttons: a slider makes the layer more or less see-through, the arrows zoom to it, and i says where the data comes from.
• Comments: the speech-bubble button lets members leave notes about a layer. Sign in to read them or add one.
• Ward maps: tap a ward. If we hold maps for it, the box lists them and offers Buy Ward Map for Ksh 2,500. One payment opens every file for that ward, for good. If we have none yet, Request Ward Map asks our team to find one, free, and tells you when it arrives.

Earth observation

The nine layers drawn from satellites show the city from space, as a picture under the parcels. They all come from NASA.

• Vegetation (NDVI) — how green the ground is.
• Surface temperature — which places get hottest. Roofs and roads heat up more than trees and grass.
• Night lights — light seen from space at night, which shows where the city is built up.
• Impervious surface — how much of the ground is covered by roofs, roads and paving. Rain cannot soak into that ground, so it runs off into drains and rivers. Measured in 2010.
• Built-up areas — where the ground was built on, and where the roads were, in 2010. Light grey is land that was not built on.
• Population density 2020 — how many people live in each square kilometre. For the 2019 census by area, use Population (Sub-loc) instead.
• Urban expansion to 2030 — how likely each square kilometre is to become town by 2030. It is a forecast made in 2000, not a plan; the zoning layer says what may be built.
• Flood (last 2 days) — water seen by satellite in the last two days. Red is flooding, yellow is ground that floods often, and blue is normal water. Grey means cloud hid the ground. Most days it shows nothing over Nairobi; it is for the rainy seasons.
• Rainfall (last day) — how hard it rained over the last day, measured from space.

Each dot on these pictures covers between 30 m and about 11 km, so they show the shape of the city, not single plots. There is nothing to click on them. The info button beside each one says how detailed it is and how old. A green patch means plants grow there; it does not mean the land is protected.

The legend

The Legend button at the bottom left explains every layer you have on: what each colour, line and symbol means, in the order they sit on the map. Some layers are made of parts — an airport’s safety surfaces, or the parcels’ old (superseded) titles. Tap a part to hide or show it. The eye hides a whole layer and the arrows zoom to it.

Adding your own data Gold+

Upload at the top of the layers list puts a file of your own on the map, so you can see it next to everything else.

• It opens most map files: GeoJSON, a zipped Shapefile, KML or KMZ (Google Earth), GPX (from a GPS) and CSV (a spreadsheet with latitude and longitude columns).
• Nothing is sent until you say so. First you see your file on a small map, untick any column you do not want to share, and pick a colour. Survey positions in metres are converted for you.
• What you upload is private: only you and the site’s admins can see it.
• Files up to 50 MB.

Land parcels

• The parcel map was renewed in October 2026. It now holds 254,948 current parcels across Nairobi County, with 33,472 older titles kept as history. See old titles and mother titles.
• Parcels appear when you zoom in close — at zoom 16 or closer. Further out there are too many to draw.
• Plot numbers are written on the map from zoom 17, with Gold or Platinum. A number is shown only where it fits inside its plot, so small plots get theirs as you zoom in. Point at a parcel to see its full number.
• Anyone can see the shapes of parcels, even without an account. Signed out, you can look at 25 areas of the cadastre a day (the cadastre is the map of all land parcels); going back to an area you have already seen is free. The details — plot number, LR number, size, block — need a Gold or Platinum plan.
• The planning rules come with the parcel (Silver and up). Tap a parcel and its box shows the zone it is in, with the most floors allowed, how much of the land may be built on, the plot ratio and the smallest plot allowed. You do not need to switch on the zoning layer first. Signed out, or on the Public plan, the box shows the parcel’s outline only: no plot or LR number, size or block.
• Position: the box also shows the middle of the parcel as latitude and longitude. Tap the numbers to select them, then paste them into a phone map or a GPS.

Parcel details panel Silver+

In a parcel’s box, press View all details. A panel opens with everything the box had no room for. The row of buttons at the top — Details, Zoning, Potential, Conditions — jumps to that part.

The panel opens from Silver up, with the zone and what can be built. The parcel’s own details — plot number, LR number, size and block — are added on Gold and Platinum. Signed out or on the Public plan, the panel does not open.

A few words you will see there:

• Plot ratio — how much floor space you may build compared with the size of the land. On a 1,000 m² plot, a plot ratio of 200% allows 2,000 m² of floors in total.
• Ground coverage — how much of the land the building may sit on. 50% means half the plot.
• Levels — the most floors allowed.
• Minimum plot size — the smallest plot the zone allows.

What the panel tells you:

• Zoning: the zone’s name and its four figures. A figure marked * has been set for this particular plot by the zone’s written rules, with the zone’s usual figure beside it. The full written rules are one tap away.
• What can be built: the total floor space, the building’s footprint, the number of floors and roughly how many homes fit on this parcel. Available from Silver up. In many zones a smaller plot is allowed fewer floors than a big one; the panel works out the right number for this plot and tells you which rule it used. Some zones have special rules for plots facing a named road; the panel says so and quotes the rule. Two bars show whether the plot ratio or the floor limit is what stops you building more — the one marked binds.
• Which size is used: the size on the title, when the outline on the map agrees with it. When they differ by more than a tenth, the panel shows both, uses the outline, and asks you to check the title.
• Very small plots: if the parcel is smaller than 0.05 ha (500 m²), the panel says so plainly. A plot that small cannot be split, and cannot hold more than one home, whatever the zone allows. This is common — about three parcels in five in Nairobi are that small.
• Parcels that cross two zones: a few parcels sit across a zone boundary (about one in eighty). The panel names the other zone and says which zone the figures belong to, so you can check with the county.
• How it compares: a line gives the usual plot size in the zone and how this one compares.
• Try a different size: type another plot size, or press × 2 or × 3, and watch the figures change. Use it to see what joining two plots would allow.
• The title’s own record (Gold and Platinum), in four groups: the parcel, its survey and deed plan, how it was created, and its position. Only what the register holds is shown: an empty field is left out, not printed as a dash. Title status says whether this is the current title or a superseded (older) one.
• Deed plan: the number and date of the deed plan, the drawing attached to the title.
• Boundaries: Fixed means surveyed to beacons on the ground. General means drawn from the index map and not fixed by survey; a surveyor fixes them before you build.
• Land type: some land in the register is a road, open space, wayleave or reserve, not a building plot. Such land is marked on the parcel’s box, and the panel says so above the building figures.
• Survey remarks: the surveyors’ own notes on the record, such as Resurvey or Superseded by FR 375/53.
• Title history (Gold and Platinum): Created from names the mother title the parcel was cut from, and how — subdivision, new grant, change of user and so on. Tap it to search that title. Former number is the number the plot had before its block was converted. Under them, the older titles recorded on the same ground: tap one to outline it on the map.
• Its own survey plan sheet: the Survey Plan (RIMS) card lists the sheet that covers this parcel first, marked ★. That way you buy the right sheet, not its neighbour.
• Plans named in the survey remarks: a parcel’s survey plan (FR) is the survey that created it. When its remarks name a later plan, such as Superseded by FR 375/53, the later plan is the one in force. The Survey plan card lists those plans too, and you can open or buy any that is on file.
• Copy attributes: copies the parcel’s details, zoning and position as text you can paste anywhere.
• Print PDF: a parcel report of at most two pages. Page 1 answers the question: a one-line verdict, the zone, the floors and floor space allowed, the map, and the parcel with its area and its position (latitude and longitude, and UTM 37S for surveyors). Page 2 says why: the zone's rules, what applies to this plot, the notes from the panel, next steps and a link back to the parcel. Each report has a reference number.

Airport layers

Layers in the Aviation group show the invisible safety surfaces around a runway, which limit how tall things may be built nearby. Each surface has its own colour and tick box, so you can show one at a time. They slope and stack, so they are easiest to understand in 3D — see the 3D & Aviation tab.

Survey blocks and survey plan sheets

The Survey Blocks layer shows the registration blocks that parcels are numbered in. Tap one and the details panel lists the Survey Plan (RIMS) sheets for that block, and the block’s official boundary description (the long text that begins "commences at co-ordinate…"). Press ……. to read all of it.

Each sheet is bought on its own, for Ksh 500, on top of a Gold or Platinum plan. A block can have many sheets — Block 66 has 21. A sheet you have bought shows a green tick and opens whenever you like.

A parcel’s own details show its survey plan sheet too: the sheet that covers that plot is marked ★ and listed first.

Contour lines

Contour lines is a tick at the bottom of the Basemap list. It draws lines joining places of the same height, over any background. Lines are 10 m apart, with the height in metres written along them, as on a paper map. Where lines are close together the ground is steep.

They appear from zoom 11. Zoom in and more lines get their height written on them. The colour changes with the background so the lines stay easy to see.

Parcel lines and the background

Signed out, the map opens on satellite photos with parcel outlines in yellow, which is easiest to see on photos. Choose another background and the map stops choosing for you. Line colours follow the background so they always stand out: yellow parcels over photos and the dark map, black over the light map. Ward boundaries are a dashed white line over photos and violet on the light maps.

Background map

The Basemap button opens a short list. Pick one and it changes underneath everything else you have on.

• Map: the plain street map.
• Satellite: aerial photos.
• Sentinel-2 (2024): satellite photos from the European Sentinel-2 satellite, put together without clouds by EOX for the whole of 2024. Less sharp than Satellite, but recent and the same everywhere — good for comparing an area today with an older plan.
• Terrain & trails: a map of hills, parks and paths.
• Relief (Mapterhorn): the shape of the land and nothing else. Slopes facing the top-left are lit and the others are shaded, and the colour shows the height: cream on the city's plains, tan on the higher ground and hills. It is drawn from open height data measured about every 30 m, so it is soft when you zoom in close. Good for seeing ridges, valleys and which way the ground falls under a plot.
• Blank: a plain white page. Handy when you want to see only the parcel or zoning lines, or print them cleanly.
• Contour lines: a tick, not a background. Draws height lines over whichever map you use.
• Mute the ground: another tick, not a background. Drains the colour out of whichever map you are using, so plot outlines and zoning colours stand out against it. Useful at close zoom, where a street map and the lines drawn over it compete. It changes only how the background looks, not which one you picked, and it applies to the flat map rather than the 3D view.
• Aerial imagery: where we hold very sharp photos of an area (30 cm — you can make out a car), they appear as their own tick under the contour lines. They cover part of the city, so they draw on top of your chosen background, which fills in everywhere else. A softer picture appears within a second, then sharpens in place as the detail arrives. Places you have seen before open instantly.
• Dark or light: use the theme button in the top bar. The street map changes to match.

Weather forecast

The cloud button on the right (or the W key) shows the weather for the next three days over the whole map, with a timeline along the bottom.

• Wind: moving streaks show which way the wind blows; the colour shows how strong it is. Rain and Temperature colour the map instead.
• Lines: adds lines of equal temperature or air pressure, with their values. Turn them off if they get in the way.
• Timeline: press play (or Space) to watch the three days go by, drag the slider to any hour, or use the ← and → keys. The small arrow shrinks the panel to one line; the × closes the forecast.
• The forecast is for Nairobi as a whole. It cannot show rain over one estate and sun over the next. It is updated every couple of hours.

Flood map

The water-drop button on the right shows where rain water runs and collects across Nairobi, hour by hour. Anyone can use it, with or without an account.

• Choose the rain: A storm lets you set how much rain falls (in millimetres) and over how many hours. The forecast uses the next three days of forecast rain. The map works the hours out one by one, and the bar says how far it has got.
• Rivers rise: no rain this time. Drag the strip to put every river from half a metre to 10 m over its banks, and see the land each one reaches. The card for a spot says how high it stands above the river it drains to.
• In 3D (Platinum), the water lies on the hills and valleys, and the bar and Check a spot work there too.
• Reading it: light blue is shallow water and dark blue is deep. A thin pale line marks water 10 cm deep, about what comes in under a door. A pale hatch shows ground that flooded earlier and has drained. Roads go red under 10 cm of water, and deep red under 30 cm.
• Check a spot: press it, then tap the map. A card shows how deep the water is there, its highest and when, how many hours it stood 10 cm or more, and the roads under water near it. Copy link shares the storm and the spot.
• Timeline: press play, or drag along the strip under the figures. Blue bars along the top are the rain; the shaded line is how much land is flooded.
• It is a model built from public data, not a measurement, and not an official flood map. Drains and culverts are not in it. How it works.

Finding a parcel Signed in

The search box in the top bar finds land by any of its numbers. Press / to jump to it. Results appear as you type: ↑ and ↓ move through them, Enter opens one, and Esc closes the list.

You do not need to type it exactly. Capital letters, extra words such as plot or L.R. No., and spaces are ignored, and so are apostrophes in names — tinganga finds Ting'ang'a. If a number could mean more than one thing (181/2504 can be a block and plot, an LR number or an FR number), you get every match, exact ones first.

• A parcel opens just as if you had tapped it on the map.
• An area — a registration block, a survey plan, a named block or a sub-county — is marked as one in the list, with how many parcels it holds. Choosing it shows the whole area. Zoom in to see the parcels inside.
• Order: exact matches first; after that, the ones nearest the middle of your map, with the distance shown.
• Recent searches: tap the empty box to see what you searched for recently on this device.

Old titles and mother titles

The register keeps a parcel's history. When land is subdivided, or an old LR title is given a block number, the old title is kept as superseded: it no longer exists as a parcel, but it is still on record.

• The map draws current parcels only. Old titles lie under them, so drawing both would cover every subdivided area twice.
• Search finds old titles too. They are marked Superseded in the list and come after a current parcel with the same number. On the map an old title is a dashed orange outline, not a filled parcel.
• A mother title is the land a parcel was cut from. Search its number (12979/2) to see every parcel created from it, shown as an area.
• Title history Gold — a parcel's details list what it was created from, and how (subdivision, new grant, change of user…). They also list the old titles on that ground: tap one to outline it. Open an old title and it lists the current parcels standing on it now: tap one to open it.
• All the old titles at once Gold — open the Legend and, under the parcels, tap Superseded titles (history). Every old title in view is drawn as a dashed orange line under today’s parcels, from zoom 16. Tap it again to hide them.

This is the history as the cadastre records it. For an official record of a title, do an official search on Ardhisasa.

Coordinates, in any form

Type or paste a position and the list offers two things: the parcel at that spot, if there is one, and Go to, which takes the map there and drops a pin. It understands:

• Decimal degrees, either way round — -1.2921, 36.8219 or 36.8219 -1.2921. A latitude without its minus sign (1.2921) is read as south, as it usually means in Nairobi.
• With compass letters — 1.2921 S 36.8219 E.
• Degrees, minutes and seconds — 1°17'31.6"S 36°49'18.8"E, or with spaces instead of the symbols.
• UTM zone 37 South on WGS 84 — an easting and a northing in metres, such as 257000 9857000 or 37M 257000E 9857000N. Old survey positions (Arc 1960 or Cassini) can be a few hundred metres different; change those with the Cassini tool first (Tools tab).
• A link copied from Google Maps or OpenStreetMap.

If the position is outside Nairobi County, the list tells you.

What your plan allows

• You must be signed in to search.
• Public: search by LR and parcel number, up to 5 results, and 3 searches a day. Type the whole number: a search finds a plot by its full number only, and shows you where the plot is — its outline — not its plot or LR number, size or block. Nothing shorter than 3 characters is sent. A search counts once however many letters you type, as long as you are finishing the same number or deleting back along it. Any other number starts a new search. So does a corrected number — so check it before you pause. So does a position you type. The search box shows how many you have left today.
• Silver, Gold and Platinum: everything above, plus areas, survey plans, mother titles and places — up to 30 results, with no daily limit.

Opening a parcel from a link

Open the parcel in a notification, and Open parcel on your account page, open the map already on that parcel. You need to be signed in.

Searching inside a layer

Open the table (the T key, Silver and above) to see every item in a layer as a list. Each layer you have switched on gets a tab with its own columns, and the parcels on screen get one too (Gold and above). Search every column at once, tick Only what is in view, click a column to sort it, and read the totals at the foot. Click a row to open it on the map. Export CSV saves the rows (Platinum).

Tools

Press Tools at the bottom right to open the toolbar. Tap a tool to open it; tap it again, or the ×, to close it. The – button folds a tool down so you can see more of the map. On a phone the tool slides up from the bottom, and you swipe the toolbar sideways to see every tool.

The tools sit in four groups, the same four as below. The first button, All tools (or the K key), lists every tool with what it does and the plan it needs. Type a word such as area, address or download to find the right one. The tools you used last are at the top.

On a computer you can move a tool out of the way: drag it by its title. It stays there for the next tool and your next visit. Double-click the title to put it back. The ? button on a tool opens this page at that tool.

Who can use what:

• Measure is free for everyone, even without an account. On the Public plan it is the only tool on the bar. A More tools button there shows what each plan adds.
• Cassini, Density and Profile need Silver or higher.
• All the other tools need Gold or Platinum.

Many tools ask you to tap the map. While a tool is waiting, a green bar says so, and three keys help: Backspace takes back the last point, Enter finishes, and Esc stops.

Measuring and working things out

• Measure (free): choose Distance or Area, then tap points on the map. The total changes as you go. Double-tap, or press Finish, to end. Each measurement stays on the map and in a list, where you can zoom to it, copy it or remove it. Choose the units: metres, hectares and acres, or feet.
• Profile (Silver and up): shows how the ground goes up and down along a line. Press Draw a line, tap along your route, and double-tap to finish — the chart appears straight away. It gives the length, the lowest and highest points, the total climb and the steepest part. Move your finger or mouse along the chart to see that spot on the map. Copy the figures, or save them for a spreadsheet (CSV).
• Density (Silver and up): works out how much can be built on a plot. Type a plot size, or press Pick a parcel on the map and tap one. It fills in the zone’s rules for you and shows the total floor space, the building’s footprint, the number of floors and roughly how many homes. It warns you if the plot is too small for the zone, or crosses into a second zone.
• Cassini (Silver and up): changes a position between the latitude and longitude your phone uses and the Cassini numbers on old Kenyan survey documents, in metres or feet. Show on map puts a pin there and names the survey block. The Cassini converter guide explains it with examples.

Finding things

• Find place: type a place, road or building. Suggestions appear as you type; choose one and the map goes there and puts a pin on it. Your recent searches are kept. (For parcels, LR numbers and positions, use the search box in the top bar.)
• What’s here: tap any spot. You get its address, its position written three ways, its ward, its planning zone and its height above sea level. Each line has a copy button, and Street View opens Google’s street photos of the spot.
• Nearest: finds the closest things to a spot — for example, the nearest water reservoirs. Choose a layer, then start from a tap, the middle of the map, or where you are now. The results are listed nearest first, with the distance and direction, and numbered on the map. Distances are straight lines, not along roads.
• Spatial — ask the map: ask the map a question without any code. Find a layer; where its details match what you choose; that are inside, outside or near another layer, or an area you draw; and show them as a list, a count, or a total. The answer is highlighted on the map, and the question is written back to you in plain words. Tap a result to open it.

Seeing patterns

• Legend: the legend of every layer you have on. It can also colour a layer by its own information — one colour per name (for example, per sub-county), or colours for number ranges (for example, population). Check the preview, then press Apply.
• Heatmap: for layers with many points. Heatmap glows where points are crowded together; Clusters groups nearby points into numbered bubbles that split as you zoom in. Sliders change the size and strength, and you can give more weight to points with a bigger number.
• Time: two parts. Layer versions moves through the years and shows the version of each layer that applied then — for example Zoning 2004, then 2023, then DC Policy 2026, or the 2009 census, then 2019. Press Play to watch it change, and Put layers back to undo. Filter by date shows only the items of a layer from certain years; tap a year on the chart to pick it. Opening the tool changes nothing until you move the slider.
• Compare: puts two sets of numbers side by side — two layers, or two figures from one layer, such as households in 2009 and in 2019. It tells you which is higher and by how much, and shows a table and a chart of both. Save it for a spreadsheet (CSV).
• Swipe: shows two things either side of a line you drag across the map — two layers, or a layer against the satellite photos or the street map. Good for spotting what changed between two zoning plans. The arrow button swaps the sides; Stop puts the map back.

Saving and sharing

• Bookmarks: saves what you are looking at — the place, the zoom, the background and the layers. Signed in, your bookmarks follow you to every device. Open puts it all back; tick Match its layers exactly to also switch off layers you added since. Each bookmark has a link you can copy and send.
• Export: saves part of a layer as a file — everything, or only what is on screen, or only the items that match a filter. Choose the columns and the kind of file: GeoJSON for map software, CSV for spreadsheets, or KML for Google Earth. You see how many items and how big the file is before you save. Saving files needs Platinum. The same tool makes a parcel report: pick a parcel for a PDF with its details and zoning.
• Embed: gives you the code to show this map on another website. It shows the view you are looking at and the layers you tick. Your private uploads are always left out. Choose the size, press Preview to check it, then Copy the code.

Sharing and printing

• Share: the address in your browser always matches what you see — the place, the zoom, the background and the layers. Copy it and send it to share the same view.
• Print or export: press P. Give the map a title and notes, choose A4 or A3, landscape or portrait, this view or all of Nairobi, and whether to add the legend and a grid. Then print it, download a PDF, or download an image. The date and your name are added. Each one counts as one map print: 3 a day on Public, 5 a day on Silver, and no limit on Gold and Platinum. You need to be signed in to print. On Public and Silver, the browser’s own Print (Ctrl + P) prints a short note instead of the map, so use this window.
• Grid: press G to show or hide the coordinate grid. The basemap menu sets how it is labelled: degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds, or UTM metres.
• Full screen: press F.

Ask AI Silver+

The AI button opens a chat. Ask it things like where a place is or what a planning rule means. It remembers the conversation, so you can ask a follow-up (“and in Kileleshwa?”).

• Ask about a parcel: tap a parcel first, then ask “what can I build here?” The AI sees the same zoning figures as the parcel panel, so its answer matches your screen.
• Share map view: the line above the question box shows what the AI can see — the zoom, your layers and any chosen parcel. Untick it to ask without sharing that.
• Buttons in answers: when an answer mentions a place, a layer or a parcel, a button takes you there. The map only moves by itself when you ask it to (“take me to Upper Hill”).
• Check an approval (Platinum): type a planning application's PLUPA number, for example “Is PLUPA-BPM-001234-N approved?” If it is approved, you get a ✅ and where the development is, and nothing else. For anything more about an application, contact us. You can check 3 numbers a day.
• The badge shows how many questions you have left this month. + starts a new chat. Enter sends; Shift+Enter starts a new line.

Ask AI needs a Silver plan or higher, and each plan has a monthly limit. If the AI cannot be reached, planning questions are still answered by quoting the Development Control Policy 2026 directly, and it tells you when it is doing that.

The 3D view Platinum

Press the 3D button to tilt the map and see hills and buildings in three dimensions. Press it 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 it, press the orbit button in the top-left corner (the ring) and then drag normally. Press it again to go back to moving the map. On a computer you can also hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) while you drag to tilt.

The small map in the corner. When the map is tilted it is easy to lose your way. The little map at the bottom right always points north, with a green wedge showing which way you are looking. Press its − to hide it.

Choosing the ground in 3D

The basemap button at the top left shows the background you are on. Press it to choose another: Map, Satellite, Sentinel-2, Terrain & trails or Blank. It is the same choice as on the flat map — change one and the other follows. On a slow connection, Map loads fastest.

Choosing what to show in 3D

The layers button opens the Map layers panel. Scene switches buildings, hills, parcels, height lines and building shadows on or off. Below it, the map layers are in the same groups as on the flat map. Tap a group to open it; the number beside it says how many layers it holds and how many are on.

How each layer stands up in 3D

In 3D, layers stand up from the ground so their numbers are easy to see. Most offer more than one view — pick one under the layer’s name:

• DC Policy 2026 — Height limit. Each zone rises to the height it allows, green for low and red for tall: the tallest the city is allowed to grow. Plot ratio raises each zone by the floor space it allows instead.
• Population — Density. Areas rise by how many people live in each square kilometre. Population or Households raises them by the count instead. Areas with no figure lie flat, and the legend says how many have one.
• Boundaries — Walls. City, sub-county, ward and water-zone boundaries stand as glass walls.
• Rivers and roads — Flow and Glow. Rivers flow and main roads glow. The movement stops if your device is set to reduce motion.
• Reservoirs — Pillars. Each reservoir stands as a lit column.
• Flat draws the layer on the ground, as on the flat map.

Each layer also has sliders for how see-through it is and how tall it stands, a Labels switch, and Zoom to. Tap a column or wall for its details. Your choices are remembered on this device.

Airport safety surfaces

Around every airport are invisible sloping surfaces that buildings must stay below, so that aircraft can land and take off safely. They are what a building’s height is checked against near an airport. The Obstacle Limitation Surfaces panel, at the bottom left of the 3D view, draws them.

• Aerodrome: pick one — JKIA, the planned second JKIA runway, Wilson, Eastleigh or Northlands. The map flies there and draws its surfaces at their real heights.
• Surfaces list: tick or untick each surface to see inside the stack.
• Height stretch: the surfaces are very flat compared with their size, so the panel makes them three times taller to show their slopes. Set it to 1× to see them at true height. This only changes the drawing, not the numbers.
• Footprints on the ground: draws each surface’s outline on the ground, so you can see which streets and plots lie under it.
• Height-limit map: colours the ground by how much room there is to build before reaching the lowest surface above: red where there is none, then orange, yellow and green as the room grows. It is a guide, not a survey.
• Under the pointer: move over the map and the panel says how much room is left at that spot, in metres and in floors (at 3 m a floor).
• Frame it: shows the whole airport again.

Building shadows

Permitted envelope shade in the Scene group raises every parcel on screen to the biggest building its zone allows, and draws the shadow that building would cast. It answers: if this street were built as tall as allowed, what would be in shade, and when?

• Time of day: drag the bar at the bottom through the day (Nairobi time). Now jumps back to the present, and the arrows change the day — the sun’s path moves through the year, and the shadows with it.
• Each floor is taken as 3 m, and road-facing rules are not included, so for a single plot the parcel details panel is the one to trust. You need the parcels switched on and to be zoomed in close.

Flying the approach

Fly the approach sends an aircraft down through the safety surfaces, lands it and takes off again, so you can see them the way a pilot would. Press the button again to stop.

Runway picks the approach. Speed plays it in real time or faster. Camera picks where you watch from:

• Side profile (the first) flies beside the aircraft — best for seeing how high it is above the buildings below.
• Chase follows from behind.
• Tower stays beside the runway and turns to watch, like someone on the ground.
• Free lets you move the map yourself while the aircraft flies.

The aircraft flies above the approach surface, not on it: the surface is a limit for buildings, not the flight path. The aircraft is also drawn bigger than life so you can see it.

Live traffic

Show live aircraft in the same panel shows the aircraft flying around Nairobi right now, at their real height, with the flight number, height, and an arrow for climbing or descending. Tap one for more, and Follow to ride behind it. Positions come from adsb.lol, a network of volunteers, and update every few seconds.

Flights across Africa

The plane button on the 3D view's left-hand bar zooms out to Africa on the globe. It shows every airport and airstrip in Africa, and the passenger routes that fly from African airports today.

• Routes: each line joins two airports. Amber lines stay in one country, blue lines stay in Africa, and purple lines leave Africa. The more airlines fly a route, the thicker its line. Use the buttons at the top of the panel to show only one kind.
• Airports: a bigger dot means more routes. Small airstrips appear when you zoom in, and runways are drawn to scale when you zoom in close.
• Find an airport by its code (NBO, MBA) or its name or town. Tap an airport to see where you can fly from it, its runways and its height.
• Fly this route: pick a route and an aircraft takes off, climbs, cruises and lands, with the camera following it. The panel shows its height, speed, time in the air and distance to go. You can pause, speed it up, drag the bar to jump ahead, or look around freely.

The flight is a simulation. It follows the shortest path over the globe, at the heights and speeds a jet usually flies. Real flights bend around weather and closed airspace, so their path and time differ. Airports come from OurAirports and routes from each airport's Wikipedia page. Flights across Africa is part of the Platinum plan, like the rest of the 3D view.

Saving a 3D view

The print button in the 3D view saves what you see as a picture.

Accounts and plans

Some parts of the map are free. Others need a plan. There are four plans: Public (paid once: Ksh 100), and Silver, Gold and Platinum (paid monthly).

• Signing up: create an account, then wait for our team to approve it. You get an email when it is ready.
• Parcel outlines: free for everyone, even 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 — about a neighbourhood each. Moving around inside one area, or going back to one you have seen, is free. After that the map asks you to create an account — Public costs Ksh 100 once and never runs out.
• Old Nairobi Maps: Silver and up.
• Ward maps: any account, Public included, Ksh 2,500 per ward.
• Full parcel search, tables and Ask AI: Silver and up. Ask AI has a monthly limit — 100 on Silver, 1,000 on Gold, no limit on Platinum.
• Parcel details (LR number, size, block), most tools, uploading your own layers, and survey plans (RIMS and FR): Gold and Platinum. Each survey plan is also paid for on its own — Ksh 500 a RIMS sheet, Ksh 500 an FR plan.
• Measure: free for everyone, even without an account.
• Cassini, Density and Profile: Silver and up.
• 3D view, exports and downloads and API access: Platinum.
• Printing (the Print button): 3 maps a day on Public, 5 a day on Silver, no limit on Gold and Platinum.

Some things are paid for on top of a plan:

• Survey plans (FR) — one plan at a time.
• Survey plan sheets (RIMS) — Ksh 500 a sheet.
• Zone maps — Platinum, one zone at a time.
• Ward maps — Ksh 2,500 a ward.
• The full Parcels Cadastre and DC Policy 2026 files.
• Layers our team adds — any plan, one layer at a time, yours for good. Each layer shows its price in the Layers list.

The prices here are read from our price list each time the map opens; the Pricing page shows the same list. Everything is paid by M-Pesa to Paybill 522522.

Staying signed in

When you sign in, Keep me signed in on this device is ticked for you. Your phone or computer then stays signed in for 30 days after your last visit. That covers the map, your account page and every other page of the site. You do not have to sign in again each day.

• On a shared or public computer, untick the box before you sign in, and sign out when you finish.
• Signing in or out in one tab updates the site’s other open tabs.
• Lost a phone? Sign out on every device, under Settings on your account page, signs you out everywhere at once. Changing your password also signs out every other device.

Buying a survey plan sheet (RIMS) Gold+ · per sheet

You need two things: a Gold or Platinum plan, and a payment of Ksh 500 for that one sheet. A block can have many sheets (Block 66 has 21), and each is bought on its own.

• Tap the survey block on the map, or open its details.
• Every sheet for the block is listed. Tap one you have not bought to ask for it.
• Pay the amount shown, then send the confirmation as shown.
• Our team checks the payment. You get a notification, and the sheet opens for you, with a green tick beside it.

Getting a survey plan for one parcel Gold+ · per plan

A survey plan (FR) also needs two things: a Gold or Platinum plan, and a payment for that one document. A plan on its own does not open them.

• Tap the parcel on the map and open its details.
• Press Buy Survey. The file size is shown next to the price — these are scanned sheets, often a few megabytes, worth knowing on mobile data.
• Pay the amount shown, then send the confirmation as shown.
• Our team checks the payment. You get a notification, and the plan opens for you.
• It opens in a full-screen viewer: pinch or scroll to zoom, drag to move, and the rotate buttons (or the R key) turn a sideways scan the right way up. Save image keeps a copy.
• If we have no plan for that parcel, the panel says Survey Plan — not on file and offers Request Plan instead. That is free: it asks our team to find the plan, and you are told when it has been added.

Downloads Platinum

Platinum accounts can download the map’s data as files. That is every layer made of shapes, including the ones our team has uploaded, such as Zoning 2004 (Superseded), the railway lines and the airport surfaces. The satellite pictures under Earth observation are pictures, not data, so they are left out. A layer our team added downloads once you have bought it (see Layers). Most layers come with the plan. Two are paid for once, on top of it: the Parcels Cadastre (Ksh 10,000) and DC Policy 2026 (Ksh 10,000).

• Press Download on either. A window shows the price and a Pay via WhatsApp button, which sends us your request with the amount filled in.
• Pay to Paybill 522522 and send the confirmation. The window then says Request sent — awaiting confirmation, and so does your account page under Requests.
• Once our team confirms the payment, the file is yours to download whenever you like, a receipt appears under Payment history, and you get a notification.
• You buy the edition of the file on sale that day. When we publish a new edition (more parcels, new columns), it is a new purchase, and we tell you what changed. Earlier buyers may pay less.

Downloads are Platinum only. Silver and Gold can see everything on the map and print it, but cannot save the data as files. The full price list is on the Pricing page.

Your account page

My Account in the top menu has everything about your account, in five parts:

• Overview — your plan and when it renews, the parcels you opened last (tap one to go back to it), What’s new, and what other members say about the site.
• My work — everything you have saved or downloaded, and what you have done.
• Requests — survey plans and files you have asked for, and how far along each one is.
• Plan & billing — what you pay, your payments and your invoices.
• Settings — your name, photo, password, emails, your notification history, and Sign out on every device.

Reviews

Give a review in the top bar opens what people say about Nairobi Maps: the average rating, how the stars fall, what members used it for, and each review with our team’s reply. Anyone can read them.

• Write yours: press Write a review. Give a star rating, pick up to three things you used the map for, and say a few words. You need to be signed in.
• Your name: it shows under your name and plan. You can show your surname as an initial (“Jane W.”).
• Keep it safe: leave out links, e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Reviews are shown to everyone.
• One each: press Change your review to edit it, or Remove my review to take it down. Our team may read reviews before they appear, and your bell tells you when yours is published or answered.

Ward maps

Tap a ward on the Wards layer. If we hold maps for it, the box lists them and offers Buy Ward Map for Ksh 2,500. Pay the amount shown and our team confirms it; the ward’s maps then open for you whenever you like, and an invoice appears on your account page. Any signed-in plan can buy one. If we have none, Request Ward Map asks us to find one, free.

Zone maps Platinum · per zone

Some planning zones have a drawn map of their own. Tap a zone on the DC Policy 2026 layer; if we hold its map, it is in the details panel. Zone maps are for Platinum, paid per zone at Ksh 5,000 each. Press Buy Zone Map, pay the amount shown, and once our team confirms it you can download that zone’s map.

Connecting QGIS or ArcGIS (WFS) API key

If you use map software on your computer every day, you can connect it to Nairobi Maps directly, so your data is always up to date instead of a copy that goes stale. The address is https://nairobimaps.com/wfs.php (a WFS — a standard way for map software to fetch map data).

• In QGIS: Layer ▸ Add Layer ▸ Add WFS Layer ▸ New, paste the address, and add ?key= and your key. The parcels, zoning, wards, survey blocks, population, rivers and roads appear as layers you can add.
• It only fetches the part you are looking at, and you cannot change the live map from it.
• Keys are given to organisations. Email nairobi@nairobimaps.com to ask for one.

Notifications

The bell in the top bar shows messages for you. It is there on the map and on every other page of the site. Messages cover your account and plan, an invoice or a receipt, a survey plan or map that is ready, and news about the site. The red number is how many you have not read yet. New ones also pop up in a short note at the edge of the screen.

• Tap a message to read all of it. Tap × to remove it.
• Unread shows only the ones you have not read; Mark all read clears the number.
• A message about a place has an Open the parcel button; news has See what’s new.
• On a phone the messages open from the bottom of the screen; swipe down or tap outside to close them.
• All your messages, and the choice of which emails we send you, are under Settings on your account page.

When your plan runs out

We remind you in the days before your plan ends, by email and in the bell. When it ends, signing in pauses until you renew. Nothing is deleted: your account, bookmarks, uploaded layers and invoices are kept, and everything is back as soon as the payment is confirmed. Renew any time before the end date and the new month is added to the end, so you lose no days. A Public account is paid once and does not run out.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a computer, these keys work whenever you are not typing in a box.

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