Martin Patience
BBC News, Nigeria correspondent

Nigeria's government says it’s pushing ahead with a long-delayed law that will criminalise hate speech.

The announcement followed the appearance of songs on social media calling on one of Nigeria’s main ethnic groups to leave the north of the country.

The latest example is a song calling Igbos – one of Nigeria’s main ethnic groups – a curse on the nation and blaming them for the country’s problems.

Africa's most populous country is home to hundreds of different ethnic groups.

Anti-Igbo sentiment in Nigeria is seen by some as a response to growing Igbo calls for their own independent state in the south-east of the country.

But the fear is that the inflammatory language, if left unchecked, could trigger ethnic clashes.

It’s not clear whether the hate speech law, already delayed for years, will actually pass and even if it does, whether it will be enforced.

A large part of the problem is that Nigeria’s politicians often play up ethnic differences to shore up their own support.

We've reported on the stand-off between between opposition supporters and police in one part of Kenya's western city of Kisumu, but our correspondent, Emmanuel Igunza, found other parts of the city deserted.

This is Kisumu's main bus station in the centre of the city:

And he found just one vegetable seller in a place usually teeming with traders:

And Emmanuel found this restaurant nearly empty:

People are staying away ahead of the expected announcement of the presidential election result.

Juliet Njeri
BBC Monitoring, Nairobi

As Kenyans wait anxiously for the final presidential election results, Abduba Dida, who came fourth in the contest, has said the two leading candidates should be disqualified and the third-placed contestant named as president.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the electoral commission, the IEBC, has said officials are waiting for some forms with the results to come in, before they announce the results.

"They should be dismissed. Jubilee [President Uhuru Kenyatta's party] should be dismissed out of this race and Nasa [opposition National Super Alliance] guy - presidential candidate. Both, both are not qualified to run. If IEBC is fair – someone had intended to steal,” said Mr Dida, whose party is called the Alliance for Real Change.

Mr Dida, known for eccentric utterances, also suggested that presidential candidates should undergo medical testing before being cleared to run.

Live television pictures from Kenya's election tallying centre, Bomas, show the hall, where the announcement of the results is expected soon, filling up.

Image source, Reuters

A buzz of excitement from the waiting crowd of dignitaries and observers can also be heard.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Kisumu

Here in Kondele in western Kenya, new mother Elizabeth Achieng, pictured in the middle, tells me she has just given birth to twins but has been been discharged early from hospital because of the political tension.

Image source, Emmanuel Igunza/BBC

This area is an opposition stronghold and disturbances first broke out here on Wednesday when presidential challenger Raila Odinga claimed the voting process had been hacked to favour his rival.

Elizabeth says she is more concerned with peace rather than who wins the elections:

As we reported earlier, there has been a stand-off between police and opposition supporters in the Kondele district of Kisumu city.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to arrive at the country's election results tallying centre, Kenya's NTV reports.

He was running for a second term in Tuesday's presidential election. His main challenger was Raila Odinga.

Results announced so far indicate that Mr Kenyatta has a strong lead.

Anthony Irungu
BBC Africa, Nairobi

While the final results of Kenya's presidential election have yet to be announced, people here in Kiambu, central Kenya, are gearing up to celebrate.

The area is considered a stronghold of President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Party.

I've seen Kenyan and Jubiliee Party flags being distributed on the road:

Image source, Anthony Irungu/BBC

Image source, Anthony Irungu/BBC

Other people in the area are glued to their televisions in hotels and clubs waiting for the official announcement, positive in their belief that Mr Kenyatta will be announced the president-elect.

The BBC's Odeo Sirari in Kenya's western city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, says that police have fired live rounds in the air to disperse opposition supporters who were gathering in the Kondele district.

They came out ahead of the anticipated announcement of the result of the presidential election.

Earlier we posted on Twitter a picture of the vehicle transporting the red carpet meant for dignitaries at Kenya's election results tallying centre:

Someone clearly felt that such a carpet needed a smarter vehicle to carry it.

Thanks to @droid254 for this suggestion:

Morocco will bid to host the 2026 football World Cup, the country's football federation has announced.

Also in the running are the US, Canada and Mexico.

It will be the fifth time that the north African nation has bid to host the event, with previous attempts in 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010.

Randy Joe Sa'ah
BBC Africa, Bamenda

Many in Cameroon have been shocked by a video that has emerged showing a dozen detainees being held in a dark cell.

The video appears to have been secretly filmed on a mobile phone, and depicts the detainees in squalid conditions, some of them shedding tears.

They are believed to have gone on hunger strike against their degrading treatment.

All 12 come from the English-speaking regions of the country that have been protesting against what they describe as their marginalisation by the majority francophone government.

One of the men in the video, Asaah Patrick Ndangoh, a former deputy mayor for the opposition SDF party, can be seen saying the government is responsible:

Image source, -

When I asked Communicatons Minister Issa Tchiroma about the allegations made in the video, he told me that he had not seen it.

Parents of some of those detained told me that they didn't know where their sons had disappeared to until they saw the video.

The charges against these individuals have not been made public. Mr Ndangoh had been accused by police a month ago of helping a radical anglophone MP to escape.

Dozens of other anglophones arrested in similar ways are now facing the death penalty for terrorism and endangering the security of the state.

Dignitaries are continuing to arrive at Kenya's election tallying centre in the capital, Nairobi.

The BBC's Anne Soy spotted the motorcade of Deputy President William Ruto.

There are expectations that a final result following Tuesday's presidential election will be announced today. But the election commission has until Monday to declare who won.

A suicide bomber has attacked an area in the centre of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, killing a soldier, the Reuters news agency reports.

A journalist tweeting from the city says the target was Mogadishu's central prison:

Odeo Sirari
BBC Africa, Kisumu

In Kenya, as soon as word went round in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu, in the west of the country, that the presidential election result was about to be announced, some people gathered in the city's Kondele district.

The area had been the scene of trouble on Wednesday after opposition leader Raila Odinga said the election results being announced at that time were fraudulent.

As soon as the opposition supporters gathered this morning, the police turned up to disperse them.

This was in contrast to yesterday, when supporters came out to celebrate after the opposition said Mr Odinga had won. The police did not get involved and people dispersed on their own.

The election commission did not announce the result as had been anticipated, but said that more results forms need to be checked.

It called on Kenyans to be patient.

There was a bit of excitement when Kenyan election officials took their place at the tallying centre in the capital, Nairobi, but we can exhale now.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the electoral commission, the IEBC, said that officials are still waiting for some forms with the results to come in.

Me Chebukati told Kenyans to be patient and go back to work.

Image source, NTV

Another briefing is expected at 14:30 local time (13:30 GMT).

Security is tight at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre where the governing Jubilee Party will assemble for the election results announcement, our colleague Issa Abdul says.

He sent these photos of preparations at the venue in Nairobi:

Local media and venue staff are poised for action:

The head of Kenya's electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, has now taken his place at the country's election centre in the capital, Nairobi, television pictures show.

We're expecting an announcement of the final result of Kenya's presidential election very soon.

The US ambassador to Kenya, Robert Godec, has told reporters outside the electoral commission's tallying centre in Nairobi that the Kenyan constitution is "very clear" on how disputes should be dealt with:

In a move aimed at tackling persistent claims of abuse, Sierra Leone has asked Kuwait to stop granting visas to people going there as domestic workers.

"Most of them are told they will be working in supermarkets or as nurses, only for them to find themselves in a situation where they are domestic house workers," says Sierra Leone's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Emmanuel Touray

"Some even [end up] as sex slaves," he adds:

More clips from BBC Newsday.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Key government officials have been observed to begin gathering at the main electoral centre in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, indicating preparations for a key announcement.

Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohammed and other key allies of President Uhuru Kenyatta have arrived at the Bomas of Kenya, which hosts the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) national tallying centre.

Presenters on the privately-owned Citizen TV, which is airing a live feed from the centre, said the “mood” there had “changed”, and that this might indicate that a "major announcement was imminent".

Senior diplomats from various missions were also spotted arriving at the venue.

The IEBC said it would announce the final presidential outcome soon after the process of verifying and tallying the results is completed on 11 August.

Results published on the commission's website show that President Kenyatta has a commanding lead over his main challenger, Raila Odinga.