African press review 30 January 2012

In Kenya, The Daily Nation reports that Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto will today file notices of appeal against last week's International Criminal Court ruling that they be charged for crimes against humanity in connection with the 2007/08 post-election violence.

Former Civil Service boss Francis Muthaura and Kass FM presenter Joshua Sang will also file appeals.

On its opinion pages, Makau Mutua writes about last week's news that ICC suspects Kenyatta and Muthaura were stepping down from their Finance and Civil Service positions.

"Let’s first get the basic facts right", says Mutua. "Neither Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, nor Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, has resigned."

Makau Mutua is Dean of the Law Faculty at Buffalo University in New York State and vice president of the American Society of International Law.

He says no one should be fooled by President Mwai Kibaki’s appointment of Nairobi Metropolitan Minister Robinson Githae as “acting” Finance Minister and Internal Security secretary Francis Kimemia as “acting” Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet.

In football terms, says Mutua, President Kibaki has simply “substituted” Kenyatta and Muthaura. Worse, Kenyatta is still the sitting Deputy Prime Minister to whom Githae, the “acting” Finance minister, will report.

According to The Daily Monitor in Kampala, Rwandan president Paul Kagamé has said the four senior army officers who were suspended from the force last week and placed under house arrest “were involved in cases of indiscipline”.

He made the comments at a weekend news conference marking the conclusion of his three-day state visit to Uganda.

A Rwandan military spokesman ruled out the possibility that the officers could have been trading Congolese gems and also denied that their arrest was prompted by suspicions of alleged involvement in subversive activity.

Insiders say the three Generals are seen within the Rwandan Defence Forces as having had close working relations with renegade Rwandan military figures Kayumba Nyamwasa (former High Commissioner to India) and Patrick Karegeya (former intelligence chief), both exiled in South Africa.

Nyamwasa has twice survived assassination attempts in South Africa.

The South African Star reports that Nigerian terror suspect Henry Okah's trial is set to start in the Johannesburg High Court later today.

Okah is accused of masterminding two car bombings in Abuja, Nigeria on 1 October, the country's Independence Day, in 2010. Twelve people were killed and 36 injured. He was arrested in Johannesburg the following day.

Okah was the alleged leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which claimed responsibility for blasts. He is accused of engaging in terrorist activities, conspiracy to engage in terrorist activity and delivering, placing and detonating an explosive device.

State prosecutor Shaun Abrahams said additional charges of terrorism and terror financing were being added to the charge sheet. These related to a 15 March bombing in Warri, Nigeria in 2010. There was also a “possible” charge of money laundering.

And some sports news from South Africa. BusinessDay reports that former Leicester coach Heyneke Meyer, who built the Bulls team that has provided the foundation of the Springbok squad for the past eight years, has been named as South Africa’s national rugby coach.

Meyer steered the Bulls to four Currie Cup titles between 2002 and 2006 and to their first Super 14 crown in 2007.

He succeeds Peter de Villiers, who won a single Tri-Nations title and beat the British and Irish Lions in 2009 before guiding the Springboks to the quarterfinals of last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.