With our correspondent in Nairobi, Sébastien Németh

Issaka Matoke is running the clippers through the hair of one of his few clients of the day. He has been working as a barber in Kibera for five years and has never seen such a situation. He now has only two clients a day. And some are uncomfortable, because he has to touch them. But he has no money to buy soap or gloves. Some therefore refuse to stay. If this continues, Issaka Matoke will have to close, because he will no longer be able to pay his 60 dollars monthly rent.

In the shop across the street, butcher Jeffrey Mogo faces the same insoluble equation, fewer customers and inflation. As people are unemployed, residents buy less meat, the price of which has increased. The Maasai who come to sell livestock in the slum are slowed down by partial lockdown and roadblocks around Nairobi. In the end, much unsold meat that he has to throw away. Jeffrey Mogo would like to buy a freezer. But at 400 dollars, it is out of reach for him.

These traders observe the situation with a calm mixed with fatalism, but for others, anger is rising. Wycleaf Lubana is unemployed. He accuses the government of turning a blind eye. He says he feels abandoned. Kibera has received no aid. "The elected officials are invisible. People are surviving while waiting for death," he says. He calls for water, food, and medicine for the population, otherwise, he warns, people will behave like animals fighting for their lives.

Many fear, moreover, that if the crisis drags on, hunger will push Kibera residents to commit crimes to survive.