The main square of Kibera is full of people.

The interim results of the elections in Kenya flicker on a flat screen that someone has clamped to a rickety wooden frame.

"Most of them have been sitting there for days, only going home for a short time to eat and sleep," says Mike Wayama, who runs a school nearby.

Kibera is said to be the largest slum in Africa, in the capital Nairobi everyone just calls it "Kibra".

As everywhere in the country, there has been no other topic for days than the election on Tuesday, in which the voters voted on a new president, among other things.

Claudia Bröll

Political correspondent for Africa based in Cape Town.

  • Follow I follow

With every day without an official final result, the tension increases.

Even three days after the election, it is completely unclear who might have won.

The two main rivals are in a head-to-head race.

Vice President William Ruto is up against opposition veteran Raila Odinga.

According to the Daily Nation newspaper, Ruto was ahead of Odinga with 49.91 percent on Friday morning with 49.42 percent.

The rest fell to two outsider candidates.

The question of who the residents of Kibra voted for is almost superfluous.

This is the constituency of 77-year-old Odinga, who has contested four elections.

In his fifth attempt, he finally wants to win the most important office in the state.

His father already had this goal.

He was Kenya's first post-independence Vice-President and for many years thereafter leader of the opposition.

"Odinga won," says one of the crowd, wearing an orange ODM cap and looking a little glassy.

He is probably one of those people who has been sitting on the square almost continuously since the election, passing the time with home-brewed changaa, a popular alcoholic drink.

ODM is Odinga's party, orange is its colour.

So far the mood has been peaceful

So far, the mood in the country has been quite peaceful.

Nevertheless, nervousness can be felt in Nairobi.

In previous elections, notably 2007, riots had broken out after the results were announced.

All schools are closed until next Monday.

Some companies have given their employees the entire week off.

Traffic is scarce on Nairobi's normally chronically congested streets.

Experience shows that violence can break out quickly in neighborhoods like Kibra.

Several Uber drivers have refused rides there.

In the hustle and bustle on the main square, it's really hard to imagine what would happen if it wasn't Odinga but Ruto who appeared on the television screen as the election winner.

Shortly before the election, both candidates called for peace and prayer.

It would be another hard blow for the most important economy in East Africa if, after the corona pandemic, after droughts and the recent rapid increase in food and fuel prices, images of unrest also circulated around the world.

"We want peace, we have to accept the decision of the people," said Ruto.