African press review 11 June 2012

Kenya in mourning for Internal Security Minister Geroge Saitoti and his assistant killed in a air crash on Sunday and Nigeria's worries over the security of its airline industry make the headlines in Africa's press.

We'll start off in Kenya where the papers are mourning the death of Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and his assistant Joshua Orwa Ojodeh who died yesterday morning in a Helicopter crash.

The Daily Nation reports the police helicopter carrying the men was brand new, but one of the bodyguards made a distress call to a colleague saying it had developed a technical problem. The pilot however did not alert the control tower.

Witness accounts in the paper suggest the helicopter caught fire while in the air. The South African company who produced the aircraft have extended their condolences and sent a team to Kenya to help investigate the causes of the accident.

Saitoti and Ojodeh were flying to Nyarongi Catholic Church in South Nyanza for a harambee or fundraiser. The Daily Nation notes that the area is "prone to incidents of national magnitude with former Agriculture Minister Bruce Mackenzie having died in a plane accident in Ngong hills in the 1970s while fiery legislator JM Kariuki was also found killed and dumped in the area in 1975".

The Standard is headlining "Kibaki declares three days of national mourning". It describes the outpouring of grief that followed yesterday's crash. Kanu vice-chairman Gideon Moi tells The Standard that "the two ministers had played a major role in instilling law and order and cracking down on terrorist elements. Saitoti's work in terms of reforming the police is also praised by various Kenyan politicians quoted in the paper.

Nigeria's Guardian also reports the country is worried about fresh air disasters. It writes that: "coupled with losses occasioned by the incessant outages at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, [the recent crashes] have forced airlines in the country to ask the Federal Government to shut down the facility."

Aviation agency chiefs are reported to have met last week to talk about developments. The outcome of the meeting is not yet known. Apparently the runway at Abuja's international airport has gone from being 3,600 metres long to 2,200. "Not quite long enough for wide body aircrafts”. For instance, a Lufthansa aircraft with passengers could not land on Friday.

The Assistant Secretary of Airline Operators of Nigeria, Mohammed Tukur tells the paper they “are worried that both international airlines and domestic airlines are losing money". If care is not taken, planes will end up crashing. and "they will lose their cherished aviation category one status". Before adding, that ministers need to "sit down and map out a strategy on how to reposition the industry.”

The East African reports that the country is "to start duty-free shops for soldiers". These shops would give military and police personnel access to cheaper goods as the government seeks to ease financial pressure on its soldiers in the wake of rising cost of living. Countries like Kenya already have such a measure. The paper says the move will "put fresh budgetary burdens on the government".

The East African also echoes several MPs concerns raised last week that the shops would be mismanaged or embezzled if there was no clear process under which they will be supervised.

However, Rwanda's minister of defence said that part of the plan is to put in place a computerised control system to run the duty-free, to avoid fraud. A military and defence spokesperson says the move comes "at a time when they are needed most because soldier’s salaries are still low compared to the cost of living today".

One may wonder about the rest of the population and how they are bearing up to the country's inflation rising from 6.8 to 7.1 per cent...