African press review 14 October 2017

Kenya's elections' agency adds confusion to the Presidential election crisis by adding 5 new names to the October 26 repeat ballot. And wild rumours about an alleged military vaccination campaign against Monkey pox sends Bayelsa school children fleeing for their lives.

We begin in Kenya where there is a new twist in the Presidential elections saga. This is after the electoral commission announced the gazetting of five more candidates for the repeat presidential elections slated for October 26.

Daily Nation reports that five will join incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta of Jubilee and NASA’s Raila Odinga in the race, after a successful High Court petition by Ekuru Aukota leader of a Thirdway alliance to get his name included in the ballot.

The publication says that despite the latest developments, Kenya is still not out of the woods and is still not certain that the election will indeed be held, and whether it will meet the standards set by the Supreme Court if the poll takes place.

In related news, the Standard says it is able to report that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan actively sought to block the Uhuru/ Ruto ticket in the 2013 elections.

According to the paper, citing a leaked documents obtained by the French investigative website Mediapart, Annan who brokered the peace deal following the 2007/8 elections urged the French ministry to pass the message on that “some of the individuals who are indicted will be arrested and transferred to The Hague”.

The Standard says that Annan was pessimistic that the ICC charges would not deter the Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto juggernaut in its tracks.

In Nigeria, Punch leads with the state of pandemonium prevailing in the southern Bayelsa state where the authorities are struggling to contain a Monkey pox epidemic.

The paper reports that thousands of parents on Friday stormed schools across the state to withdraw their children following rumours that the Nigerian army was conducting immunization as part of its ongoing Operation Crocodile Smile II in the Niger Delta.

Vanguard says the situation in the state capital Yenagoa, was particularly tense as children were reportedly seen running in different directions from their schools. This, as wild rumours spread around that some persons in military uniform were on their way to inject them with ‘’poison’’ under the guise of vaccinating them against for monkey pox virus.

Several Nigerian publications quote a spokesperson for the Nigerian Army in the Niger Delta as saying that rumours linking the country's military to a schools vaccination program are peddled by mischief makers.

Punch also reports that seven people, including two women escaped lynching by a whisker in a Yenagoa, after being beaten up, stripped and dragged to their community leader, on suspicions of being members of the alleged vaccination teams.

They were later found to be in the village to promote a brand of beer, according to the newspaper.