African press review 8 September 2018

Kenyan mother with police-fired bullet in her chest waits for reparations three years after shooting.

We begin in Kenya where a law suit filed by a woman with a stray police bullet lodged in her chest for three full years is the front page story in today's Standard.

The paper reports that despite being awarded 4.5 million Shillings (38,000 euros) as reparations for the shooting Mary Pesa has still not see a dime.

This is as she needs to be reviewed by a cardiothoracic surgeon to ascertain whether the bullet lodged in a very delicate place near the heart can be removed.

According to the Standard, the 33-year-old mother was busy collecting clothes from the balcony of her sixth floor Nairobi home when she was hit by the stray bullet.

It was fired by a policeman to disperse an angry crowd surging towards them after an incident in the capital.

And in South Africa, Times Live leads with a bombshell many had been expecting. Revelations by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the personal legal fees spent by the State for ex-president Jacob Zuma’s trial now stand at close to R17-million. That’s a whopping 963 million euros.

Times says the information is contained in Ramaphosa's response to an oral question asked by the Speaker of the National Assembly‚ Baleka Mbete on August 28.

The paper reports that the main opposition Democratic Alliance is seeking a legal injunction from the courts to stop the government from covering the legal costs incurred by the former president for his criminal prosecution.

The Times says the DA’s case will be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on the 6th of November.

Meanwhile ,Uganda's New Vision leads with revelations that 95 percent of Ugandans cannot afford lawyers. The country's Chief Justice, Bart Katureebe, reportedly made the stunning confession while launching a small claims procedure system on Thursday.

New Vision quotes him admitting that ordinary citizens often got cheated in law suits due to limited knowledge of the court system or inability to afford lawyers.

Only fi ve percent out of the over 40 million population are dining on the table of justice, Katureebe stated, adding that the trend, does not resonate with the spirit of article 126 of the Constitution.

It states that the power of the judiciary is derived from people and that Judges should take into account the interests of the people when they dispense justice.

New Vision says that under the small claims procedure court system, unveiled by the Supreme Court, any aggrieved party in a civil suit below SH10 million, (2,292 euros), can file his claim before court without any assistance from a lawyer.