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The morning after the vote

by Katy Migiro | @katymigiro | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Tuesday, 5 March 2013 11:54 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

By Katy Migiro, AlertNet correspondent in Nairobi

Tuesday March 5, 2013  

The morning after the vote, all is calm with everyone glued to the news reports.

Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta has taken the lead over his rival Raila Odinga.

My mother emailed me: "How are things in Nairobi this morning?"

"Not much reported here as you might guess -- the UK press only get going when there is really BAD news!"

Yesterday, I tried to visit Nancy who I have been filming in Mathare slum. She was raped and chased from her home during the 2007 election and refused to vote this time around.

The streets of Mathare – normally bustling with hawkers, schoolchildren and idlers – were deserted as our taxi approached her house.

Just as we were arriving, she phoned to say she had gone to her mother-in-law’s house because she was scared.

“There’s a lot of tension in Mathare. People are saying they are going to burn houses tonight,” she said.

But the night passed peacefully.

I also visited a polling station in Makadara with Grace Omondi, an aspiring MP who I have been filming. See her story here.

Queues were long – a positive sign showing a high turnout.

I was glad not to be voting myself. Some people waited in the hot sun for six or seven hours.

The Reuters office was packed with reporters filing their stories. Exhausted photographers slept on the sofa in the kitchen.

Two colleagues packed their bags to fly to Mombasa, where 15 people were killed by machete-wielding gangs early on Monday.

Police blamed a separatist movement, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), which wanted the national vote scrapped and a referendum on secession instead. But the group's spokesman denied responsibility and said it only sought change by peaceful means.

We filed a short film about Jaymosh, a first-time voter in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest and most infamous slums.

At home, I fell asleep in front of the TV.

Today, we are waiting to hear whether Grace has won her seat in Makadara and to find out if Nancy has gone home to Mathare. And, of course, hoping to know who the fourth president of the Republic of Kenya will be.

 

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