African press review 9 May 2012

Will striking Nigerian doctors ever work again? Are African leaders plotting against the International Criminal Court? Why won't ICC judges hear two Kenyan defendants' lawyers? And Kenyan unions win a victory over health insurance ... but will it last?

The situation of striking doctors in Nigeria is anything but clear this morning

According to the Lagos-based ThisDay, the dismissal of 788 medical officers by Lagos state government on Monday is final and irreversible. The popular daily cites the state commissioner for information and strategy.

But wait a minute. If you read the Lagos-based Punch, you get a different commissioner, and a different answer.

"We’re ready to negotiate with sacked doctors" reads the Punch headline. There was a twist on Tuesday in the face-off between the Lagos state government and medical doctors in its service, says Punch, as the government, barely 24 hours after sacking 788 striking doctors, said it was ready for dialogue and negotiation.

The state commissioner for health, Dr Jide Idris, made this disclosure on Tuesday while speaking on the crisis rocking the health sector in the state.

The doctors have been sacked for taking part in a strike which the state claims is illegal.

The state says it might allow a return of some of the sacked doctors if the persons concerned show remorse for their action.

Asked why only 788 of the 1,474 state doctors were sacked, the state commissioner (the one for information and strategy) said some had complied with instructions by answering the queries issued to them with a sense of sobriety, while others were not part of the perceived conspiracy because they were on official leave and could not be considered to be participating in the strike.

The strike, which began in the middle of last month, is in support of a pay claim.

The doctors’ case against the Lagos state government will be heard before the national industrial court later today.

In Kenya, under the headline "Africa’s new plot against The Hague", The Standard reports that Africa’s latest assault on International Criminal Court is under way at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and the aim is to have the two Kenyan cases deferred.

Those two cases involve the so-called "Ocampo Four", with two pairs of Kenyan defendants facing separate trials on charges of complicity in organising the violence which followed the 2007 presidential election.

The Africa Union meeting in the Ethiopian capital has been making efforts to expand jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights so that it can deal with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, which are currently exclusively left to the Hague-based international court.

Top African government legal experts are expected to continue their meeting in Addis until 11 May.

Meanwhile, according to another story in the Nairobi-based Standard, lawyers for two of the Ocampo Four, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former head of public service Francis Muthaura, will not be allowed to address judges of the International Criminal Court appeals chamber.

Uhuru and Muthaura had wanted their lawyers to make oral submissions on an appeal they filed, which is pending before the chamber. The pair claim the international court has no jurisdiction to try them.

Accepting the oral submissions would have meant opening the session and allowing the media to beam the proceedings live from The Hague.

In rejecting the request, the presiding judge of the appeal division said the chamber declined to convene an oral hearing session because written submissions by Uhuru’s and Muthaura’s lawyers will be sufficient to determine the appeal.

The chamber also rejected their argument that it was obliged to hear the appeal in public, as would be the case if the complainants were being tried in Kenya.

The main story in The Daily Nation says labour unions have called off the planned national strike after the government shelved plans to increase medical insurance contributions.

Labour Minister John Munyes announced the suspension after meeting the Medical Services Minister, Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, who is in charge of the scandal-ridden National Hospital Insurance Fund.

Munyes announced that the new rates would remain suspended for three months to enable a caretaker committee appointed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga to examine the fund’s affairs and compile a report.