Kenya is renowned for its safaris, sandy beaches and iconic landscapes. Yet beyond these attractions lies another side of the country, shaped by urban life, entrepreneurship, creativity and community resilience.  

As travellers seek deeper connections with the places they visit, some explore informal settlements to learn about their histories, livelihoods, cultures, and social realities. Yet this practice, commonly known as slum tourism, raises an important question: can tourism create meaningful opportunities without turning poverty into an attraction?  

Kibra, one of Nairobi’s best-known informal settlements, offers a useful setting for considering that question. Its enterprises, creative initiatives and community-led projects reveal a neighbourhood defined by far more than its challenges. To encounter this complexity safely and respectfully, visitors need local guidance.  

Just as guides in safari destinations or coastal towns bring local knowledge to a journey, Kibra’s residents are best placed to interpret their community. When they lead tourism experiences, they can share their perspectives, showcase local initiatives, and turn tourism into a source of social and economic opportunity for residents and visitors alike.  

Resident-led walking tours can introduce visitors to markets, food vendors, artists, workshops, schools and youth initiatives. These encounters let residents explain local priorities and present their community on their own terms, linking everyday challenges to creativity, culture, and aspirations.  

Beyond shaping the narrative, resident participation strengthens tourism’s economic potential. Locally led tours create guiding jobs and direct visitors to restaurants, craft businesses, and workshops, giving artisans, enterprises, and community organisations more income and visibility.  

These benefits can extend beyond immediate visitor spending. Community-based operators can reinvest revenue in education, sanitation, youth programmes and skills development. At the same time, tourism can develop communication, hospitality, storytelling and entrepreneurship skills while opening markets for women’s groups and small businesses. Keeping revenue in the community therefore supports a wider network of livelihoods.  

Economic opportunity, however, is only one part of lasting community wellbeing. Environmental sustainability is equally important for a neighbourhood facing challenges with waste, sanitation, drainage and safe public spaces. Tours can acknowledge these conditions while highlighting local responses, including recycling enterprises, community gardens, clean-up programmes and renewable-energy initiatives.  

The Kibra Public Space Project, for example, demonstrates how sanitation, flood management, public spaces and economic activity can improve community wellbeing. Highlighting such initiatives showcases practical solutions and local innovation rather than challenges alone.  

Responsible tour operations should align with these solutions. Walking tours reduce reliance on motorised transport, while smaller groups minimise disruption. Measures such as reducing single-use plastics, encouraging responsible waste disposal, and directing part of the revenue to environmental initiatives can further link tourism to tangible community benefits.  

Even so, neither economic nor environmental gains should come at the expense of dignity. Residents should have a say in tour routes, photography practices and how Kibra is represented. Visitors should seek consent before photographing people, respect private spaces, and recognise that everyday struggles must never become entertainment.  

These boundaries distinguish tourism in a community from tourism with it. Simply operating within Kibra does not make a tour community-based. Residents must help make decisions, have opportunities to lead enterprises, and receive a fair share of the benefits.  

For that participation to have lasting impact, accountability must underpin it. Tracking local jobs created, businesses supported, people trained, and revenue invested in community projects can show whether stated commitments are delivering meaningful benefits.  

Taken together, these principles show that how tourism operates in Kibera matters as much as the opportunities it creates. Poorly managed tours can reinforce stereotypes. By contrast, community-led experiences can strengthen livelihoods, build skills, and support environmental initiatives, while letting residents shape the stories visitors hear.  

Success should be measured not merely by visitor numbers, but by what endures after visitors leave: stronger businesses, improved livelihoods, environmental progress and preserved dignity.  

When communities remain at the centre, tourism can move beyond sightseeing towards understanding, partnership and support. Each visit can then contribute not only to a visitor’s experience but also to lasting, sustainable impact in Kibra.