Nairobi News

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Life slowly returns to Nairobi streets


Nairobi’s streets were livelier on Thursday as more businesses opened after fears of unrest over the election subsided considerably.

People flocked the city’s Huduma Centre seeking government services, in contrast to Wednesday when the centre was nearly deserted in spite of being open all day.

The jitters following the election on Tuesday had nearly stopped economic activity in Nairobi as cautious residents stayed indoors waiting for the poll outcome.

The IEBC on Thursday directed its officers to file all remaining forms 34B from around the country by noon Friday, raising the prospects that the announcement of the final results of the presidential poll could be done Friday or Saturday.

RENEWED ACTIVITY

Financial markets on Thursday showed signs of renewed activity as life returned to the streets of Nairobi, two days after the General Election.

Turnover at the Nairobi bourse rose by a quarter from Wednesday’s Sh166 million and the shilling remained stable against the dollar having been quoted at an average of 103.95 (103.90/104), same as Wednesday’s rate.

 

Stockbrokers, however, still reported limited activity and expected this to remain the case until next week when normalcy is expected to resume.

“Most institutions were operating on skeleton staff with almost all trading desks quiet until the election outcome is clear. We expect turnover to remain at the same levels until the end of the week. The shilling remained range bound and limited activity is expected on that front,” Genghis capital said in a note.

International observers offered the IEBC crucial backing on its handling of the election thus far, hours after the opposition claimed that the commission’s servers had been hacked and provisional results rigged.

WAIT FOR RESULTS

The observers, who included former US Secretary of State John Kerry from the Carter Foundation and former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki for the AU, called on Kenyans to wait peacefully for the final results.

The EU election observer mission said it had not seen any signs that there was manipulation of the election process even as they urged the IEBC to look into the opposition’s claims.

There had been fears of a violent response to Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s questioning of the authenticity of the election results, but the country remained largely peaceful.