Mathare
Mathare is a collection of slums in Nairobi with a population of approximately 500,000 people; the population of Mathare Valley alone, the oldest of the slums that make up Mathare, is 180,000 people.
Mathare is a collection of slums in Nairobi with a population of approximately 500,000 people; the population of Mathare Valley alone, the oldest of the slums that make up Mathare, is 180,000 people. Mathare is the home of football teams Mathare United and Real Mathare of the MYSA. Mathare is currently part of two electoral constituencies; the titular Mathare Constituency and the northern part being in Ruaraka Constituency. The northern part was initially part of Kasarani Constituency up to the 2013 elections when Kasarani was split into three electoral constituencies; Ruaraka being among them. The southern part was domiciled in Starehe Constituency.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Mathare
6 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Mathari Hospital
Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital is the only public psychiatric hospital in Kenya. It has capacity for 700 patients and is located near the slum area of Mathare district of Nairobi.
1.8 km · building in Kenya · Wikipedia - 02Ruaraka Stadium
Ruaraka Stadium, also known as Ruaraka Grounds, is a multi-purpose stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. It used mostly for football matches and is the primary home stadium of Tusker F.C. The stadium holds 4,000 people.
3.5 km · building in Kenya · Wikipedia - 03Gikomba market
Gikomba market is an open-air market in Nairobi, Kenya. The market includes sellers of a wide range of goods, including food and clothing.
3.7 km · open-air market in Nairobi · Wikipedia - 04KCA University
KCA University is a private, non-profit institution that was founded in July 1989 as the Kenya College of Accountancy by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya to improve the quality of accountancy and financial management training in the country. KCAU is located on Thika Road in Ruaraka, Nairobi, Kenya.
800 m · private university in Kenya · Wikipedia - 05City Park Hockey Stadium
The City Park Hockey Stadium is a field hockey stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. The Kenya men's and women's national hockey teams use the stadium for trainings and matches, in preparation for international tournaments.
3.8 km · field hockey stadium in Nairobi, Kenya · Wikipedia - 06Sir Ali Muslim Club Ground
Sir Ali Muslim Club Ground is a cricket ground in Nairobi, Kenya. The first recorded match at the ground took place in 1994, when Young Kenya played Bangladesh in a warm-up match for the ICC Trophy, which Kenya was hosting.
3.7 km · Cricket ground in Kenya · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Getting to Mathare
- Airports
- Jomo Kenyatta (NBO), 10 km · Kilimanjaro (JRO), 242 km · Eldoret (EDL), 259 km
- Stations
- Moi Air Base, 2 km
- Eldoret → Mathare108 km · quickest by road, 3h 3m · KSh630–840
- Kisumu → Mathare106 km · quickest by road, 3h 10m · KSh730–980
- Mombasa → Mathare439 km · quickest by air, 4h 14m · KSh7,190–11,160
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Mathare
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Mathare. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inMatatus (11- to 18-seater minibuses) and shuttles (6-seater cars) are convenient, inexpensive (and often the only) modes of public transport for connecting Nairobi with towns and tourist destinations in the Rift Valley and Central Highlands such as Naivasha, Nyeri, Nanyuki, Isiolo, and Thika.
- Get inMatatus can be obtained from the River Road area.
- Get inExtreme caution should be exercised in this area because petty theft is a major concern; avoid showing valuables such as mobile phones, even while in the matatu (see safety section below).
- Get inThe best method of connecting to a matatu is to arrange for a taxi to drop you off and pick you up directly at the location of the matatu that you are boarding or alighting from.
- Get inIf you're boarding a matatu from Nairobi, tell the taxi driver your destination and they will drop you off at the correct location.
From Wikivoyage: Nairobi, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01453 km
- 02465 km
- 03511 km
- 04521 km
- 05540 km
If you know how people move in Mathare – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Mathare
Mathare is 6 km from Nairobi, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
- Eastleighsuburb of Nairobi, Kenya1.5 km
- Kariobangisuburb2.6 km
- Muthaiganeighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya3.6 km
- Mowlem, Nairobineighbourhood in Nairobi3.8 km
- Shauri Moyoneighbourhood in Pumwani area of Nairobi3.8 km