African press review 22 May 2012

Kenya's Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta's political career hits a sticky patch, criticism of the Ugandan government for its response to the outbreak of nodding disease in the north of the country and discord in South Africa over the introduction of a youth wage subsidy make the front pages in the African press.

The main story in Kenya's Standard reads "Uhuru's Hurdles".

The article says that, with the launch of his own first political alliance on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta hit the trickiest stretch of his political career.

Among the hurdles are Uhuru's indictment by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for crimes against humanity.

Kenyatta's second challenge will be to convince Kenyans that he is not merely riding on a numerically strong wave of support from Mount Kenya. The ICC prosecutor claims that Kenyatta organised the Mungiki revenge killings in 2008 in order to promote the regional and political interests of the Mount Kenya region.

Uhuru will also have to confront the reality that, given the tribalised nature of Kenyan politics and its influence on the pattern of alliance building, Kenyans will have to decide if they want to pick their fourth President from Mount Kenya, which has already had two - Mzee Kenyatta and Mwai Kibaki.

The Daily Nation reports that the outlawed Mombasa Republican Council has rejected offers of dialogue made by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Yesterday, MRC spokesman Mohammed Rashid Mraja accused Odinga of playing politics.

The Mombasa Republican Council, he said, will not engage in dialogue as long as it remains banned by the government.

In the meantime, the group will not give up its secession bid in the Coast region and has vowed to boycott next year’s General Election.

Internal Security minister George Saitoti has vowed there will be no talks with the group until it renounces its ambition to make the Coast independent . In his state of the nation address to Parliament this month, President Mwai Kibaki reiterated that the Coast region is an integral part of Kenya.

In Kampala, the Daily Monitor reports that the non-governmental organisation, Health Watch Uganda, has taken the government to court for allegedly violating the rights of children affected by nodding disease in the north of the country.

The organisation is seeking a court order directing the government to put in place adequate facilities to treat and control the spread of nodding disease.

Little is currently known about the causes of nodding disease but the government’s response to the outbreak has been widely criticised. Cases were first reported four years ago. Critics accuse the government of being unprepared for what has become a mass outbreak in northern Uganda.

Nodding disease was first identified in Sudan in the 1960s. It affects children between the ages of five and 15 and results in a slowdown of both physical and mental development. It is generally fatal.

Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi should visit the Western Cape to witness the "positive impact" of a youth wage subsidy, the Democratic Alliance said yesterday, as the party continued its fight to get the government to introduce a universal youth wage subsidy.

The DA and Cosatu clashed in Johannesburg last week after the opposition party marched to the union federation’s head office in Johannesburg, in support of the subsidy. Cosatu is opposed to the plan, saying it would lead to older employees losing their jobs.

Last week, President Jacob Zuma indicated his support for the subsidy and said the matter was still being discussed at the National Economic Development and Labour Council.

Nigerian newspaper ThisDay reports that former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said the current state of insecurity in the country was a result of a long period of bad governance at all levels.

Speaking at a symposium in Jigawa State, the former president said governance and security go hand-in-hand.

Obasanjo said that the insecurity in Nigeria today is a result of misappropriation and the high percentage of national resources used for the procurement of military hardware and the maintenance of large military forces in the hope of promoting physical security at the expense of quality of living for the citizens.

He also said that the greatest cause of anxiety in terms of personal security used to be violent crime. Today, the bombing of targets in occupied public buildings or in open areas where people congregate has become the greatest source of concern.

Obasanjo added that, apart from the fact that it is giving Nigeria a bad image, the security situation is also adversely affecting investment prospects.