Returning to Kibra: Reimagining a Community Through VR

By Jabez Mutoria

When people hear Kibra, their minds often jump to one narrative — the one that paints it solely as a slum. But Kibra is more than just what headlines tell you. It’s a hub of creativity, resilience, culture, and art. This project, Return to Kibra, was born from a desire to shift that perception — to give people a chance to experience Kibra not just through words, but through immersion.

🎨 Recreating Uweza Gallery in 3D

The project began with a single room: one I’ve walked through many times, the Uweza Gallery in Kibra. This space holds powerful work by local artists — pieces that reflect the soul of the community.

I rebuilt that gallery room in Blender, carefully modeling it to capture the textures, lighting, and feeling of standing inside it. Every detail mattered — from the layout of the artwork to the ambient tones of the space. It wasn’t just about replicating walls, but honoring what those walls held.

🕶️ Bringing the Experience to VR

Using Unity, I took the 3D recreation and transformed it into an interactive VR experience designed for the Meta Quest. But this wasn’t just a passive viewing space — it was gamified. Visitors could walk through, discover artworks, hear about the artists, and engage with the space in a meaningful way.

Why VR? Because I wanted to bridge the distance.
Many people, even Nairobi locals, carry hesitation or even fear about visiting Kibra due to long-held stigma. As a result, few venture into its heart — missing out on the vibrant, evolving art scene that lives there.

So, VR became my way of saying:
“If you won’t come to Kibra, I’ll bring Kibra to you — and maybe, just maybe, you’ll want to come back.”

🎥 A 360° Walk Through Kibra

Alongside the VR gallery, I created a 360-degree video walkthrough. Shot within Kibra, this immersive footage gave viewers a guided tour of its streets, corners, murals, and community spaces.

For some, this video might be their first unfiltered look into Kibra — a space that’s often misrepresented, misunderstood, or ignored altogether. It complements the VR experience, grounding the digital reconstruction with real-life texture.

🌍 The Vision: Breaking Stigma, Sparking Curiosity

Return to Kibra is more than a tech project. It’s a cultural invitation.

Through immersive tools like VR and 360 video, I want people to reconsider what they think they know about places like Kibra. I want to show them that beyond the labels and headlines lies a creative powerhouse worth exploring.

I believe art can be a gateway, and technology can be the bridge — one that connects perception to reality, and distance to empathy.

So if you’ve never been to Kibra, I invite you to experience it virtually. But more than that, I hope this experience encourages you to walk through its streets, visit its galleries, and witness the stories firsthand.

Because Kibra is alive — and it’s worth returning to.