The Nairobi Vibe Index is a public, research-grade dashboard that scores Nairobi nightlife venues by foot-traffic forecasts. Think of it as "the data the city is too drunk to notice."
NVI catalogs 287 Nairobi nightlife venues across 25+ city areas — Westlands, Kilimani, Lavington, CBD, Karen, Upper Hill, Hurlingham, Parklands, Kileleshwa, Lang'ata, Ngong Road, Donholm, Eastleigh, Kasarani, Muthaiga, Runda, Thika Road, South B/C, Pipeline, Buruburu, Riverside, Spring Valley, Nyari, Kitisuru, and more.
The catalog is split into two tiers:
For each tracked venue, NVI shows:
NVI's vibe score is a foot-traffic forecast — not real-time. The dataset is a snapshot of typical weekly patterns for each venue, captured in April 2026 and frozen in place. Forecasts represent how busy a venue usually is at any given day-and-hour, normalized to that venue's own busiest hour.
Each venue gets a 0–100% intensity for every hour of the week. A score of 100% means "this venue is at its absolute weekly peak right now." A score of 30% means "this venue is at 30% of its busiest hour."
Why a frozen snapshot? Foot-traffic forecasts represent typical patterns — they don't shift meaningfully week-to-week. Freezing the data eliminates ongoing API costs, vendor lock-in, and maintenance risk in exchange for losing the ability to detect slow drift over months.
A venue is flagged with ★ Peaks now when its current hour matches its single highest-intensity hour of the entire week (and that peak is ≥ 60%). It means: "of all the times you could go here, right now is when it's busiest."
NVI is not a real-time tracker. It's a forecast snapshot of typical weekly patterns, intentionally static.
Each listed venue card has a "Report this venue" button. Clicking it opens a Telegram share window pre-filled with structured fields (venue name, area, current busyness 0–100%, night of week). When enough reports accumulate for a venue, that venue's heatmap can be hand-built and it graduates from listed to tracked.
This is a community-data pipeline, not an automated one. It's slow — and that's the point. Every tracked venue carries either real BestTime forecast data or aggregated community reports. No fabricated patterns, no fake heatmaps.
NVI includes a community-aggregated list of common Nairobi alcoblow (police breathalyzer) checkpoint zones. The data is reference intel — police rotate locations and checkpoints can appear anywhere at any time.
If you've been drinking, book a Bolt, Uber, Faras, or Little ride from inside the venue. Don't drive. Helpful numbers:
Every Nairobian has spent a 2,000-shilling Uber to a club that turned out to be empty. That's the obvious value: don't waste money chasing the wrong vibe.
The less obvious value: a public, transparent, research-grade view of how the city moves at night. NVI is inspired by PizzINT's observation that public foot-traffic data, made legible, becomes a kind of soft intelligence — interesting on its own merits.
NVI is small, free, and built with care. It's a research/entertainment project — not an authoritative source.
NVI is a research/entertainment project. Vibe scores are statistical estimates from public data — not real-time, not predictions. Do not make critical decisions based on NVI. The site does not endorse driving under the influence under any circumstances. Always plan a safe ride home.
web/index.html with all venue data embedded inlineFound a bug? Want a venue added? Open an issue on GitHub.