African press review 13 August 2012

“National salvation: Uganda’s 40-year medal wait ends as Kiprotich wins marathon”, proudly celebrates the country’s Daily Monitor on its front page. The paper is ecstatic in the superlatives it uses to qualify the the runner’s victory in the marathon at teh London
Olympics. “Magnificent, fabulous and astounding genius”, it calls Stephen Kiprotich who won the country its first gold medal in 40 years.

The piece proudly concludes by saying that “Kiprotich rewrote history for himself, Team Uganda and all 35 million Ugandans….For the next four years, he will reign as the best marathoner in the world”.

London Olympic Games 2012

Kenya’s The Nation draws bitter-sweet conclusions of its team’s mixed performance at the Olympics. “What was touted to be country’s greatest ever Olympics outing, surpassing the success at the last Games in Beijing four years ago, has ended up being one of the worst, the sporadic bright spots”, laments the paper.

Slideshow: A spectacular opening ceremony Pre-show at the Olympic Stadium before the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski The first tableau was a pre-industrial England Reuters/Dylan Martinez Then the stadium changed into an industrial revolution scene Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski The Olympic rings on fire above the Olympic stadium Reuters/Damir Sagolj Actor Rowan Atkinson, as Mr Bean, was part of the show Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort tried to scare the children Reuters/Dylan Martinez ... but he was quickly defeated by an army of Mary Poppinses Reuters/Phil Noble Let battle commence! Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski Performers dance with light Reuters/Mike Segar France's Laura Flessel-Colovic holds the tricolor flag Reuters/David Gray Jamaica's flag-bearer Usain Bolt leads the contingent in the athletes' parade Reuters/Damir Sagolj The athletes' parade Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski Athletes take their places in the Olympic Stadium Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch Praise the flame Reuters/Dylan Martinez Former Beatle Paul McCartney sings Reuters/Pool Reuters/Dylan Martinez The Olympic cauldron Reuters/David Gray Fireworks explode over the Olympic Stadium Reuters/Tim Wimborne Reuters/Dylan Martinez Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski Reuters/Dylan Martinez Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski Reuters/Tim Wimborne Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski Reuters/Olivia Harris

The paper asks what’s gone wrong with the Africa’s greatest sports nation. The paper says that the only bright spots were David Rudisha’s gold for record-breaking 800 metres and Ezekiel Kemboi’s steeplechase gold.

“While the athletes fought gallantly to protect Kenya’s envious status as Africa’s undisputed top Olympic nation, National Olympic Committee of Kenya officials, charged with managing Team Kenya, have shamelessly thrown the spanner in the works with an arrogant show of impunity and mismanagement”, accuses the paper.

Nigeria's Vanguard is angry. “12 million euros down the drain”, says the paper on its front page. After the country’s failure to win any medals at the Olympics.

It quotes a top Nigerian sports official who wants the federal government to launch an investigation into the sports ministry to account for how they spent the N2.3 billion government allocated for the Olympic Games preparations.

“The last time Nigeria left the Olympic Games without a medal was 24 years ago in the Seoul Olympic Games of 1988”, shamefully concludes the author.

Kenya's The Nation leads with “The battle for Somalia”. “African Union troops are gearing up for the final push against extremists in a conflict that will give the war-torn country the first real chance at peace for more than 20 years”, says the paper.

The paper believes that the long-planned assault on Somalia’s southern port town of Kismayu by the Kenya Defence Forces and their African Union Mission in Somalia or Amisom allies is only days away in what will be “a decisive week for Somalia”.

According to the paper, a “well-choreographed military strategy” designed to dislodge Al-Shabaab was agreed after top commanders of the reshaped Amisom concluded their planning meetings on Thursday 9 August, in Nairobi.

Why id Kenya step up its involvement in fighting Al Shaabab in Somalia? The catalyst for Nairobi’s incursion was a series of kidnappings by Somali gunmen on its soil. A Frenchwoman was bundled off to Somalia from northern Kenya, while a British woman and two female aid workers from Spain, abducted from a refugee camp inside Kenya, are also being held across the border. The incidents caused concern over their impact on the country’s vital tourism industry, which brings in about one billion euros.

Egyptian’s daily Al Masry al Aoum comments on the nomination of a new Egyptian commander in chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Prior to the nomination, general al-Sissi was in charge of military’s Intelligence.

The article notes that on when Morsy became president, a television host close to the Supreme Concil of Armed Forces accused Sisi of having close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.

However, the daily quotes Moataz Abdel Fattah, professor of political science at Cairo
University, who claims that al-Sisi came to control the army better than Tantawi. The professor goes further in defending the new Minister of Defense. “He is not a member of the Brotherhood,” Abdel Fattah wrote on Twitter according to the article, “He is merely a religious man.”

And to finish on a slightly lighter note. Today’s Sowetan profiles the mayor of Johannesburg’s wife. “She might be the first lady of South Africa's business capital, but Philisiwe Twala-Tau likes to keep things simple”, says the paper.

The simple things are no make-up, no bodyguards and an old Toyota Corolla she got from her mother and a 2003 second-hand Mercedes-Benz M-Class. Phiilisiwe Twala-Tau is a no ordinary woman, believes the paper. “She does not like shopping unlike most women who are addicted to it, saying "it sickens me to the stomach".

According to the paper, while the mayor’s wife hates shopping she does have a weakness for good food. "I love dining out and I have a very sweet tooth. I am also known for being a very good cook though my children like to eat out.”