African press review 15 July 2013

Election preparations in Zimbabwe, bribery in Tanzania and tea and coffee prices are among the stories in today's African papers....

In Uganda, The Daily Monitor reports that Congolese forces have recaptured the town of Kamango in North Kivu from rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces.

Military sources say the situation remains fragile because of the fear that the rebels might attack again.

An army spokesman told The Daily Monitor yesterday that the number of Congolese refugees entering Uganda had diminished after the rebels were pushed back.

Although the army says the inflow of refugees is down to about 30,000, the Uganda Red Cross yesterday put the figure of registered refugees at 66,139, showing an increase between Friday and Sunday.

There are fears that the rebels could disguise themselves as refugees in order to enter Uganda but the army have set up screening centres to monitor all those crossing the border.

Tens of thousands of police and polling officials in Zimbabwe yesterday began to cast their ballots in a two-day early voting exercise, prior to the 31 July general election, as they will be on official duty on the day.

The Electoral Commission said about 87,000 people are expected to participate in the early voting at 209 polling stations nationwide.

Voting is reported to have proceeded slowly but peacefully.

The rest of Zimbabwe's voters will go to the polls on July 31 to choose a president, more than 200 National Assembly members, and nearly 2,000 local councillors.

The heavyweight contest is that between veteran president Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

South African financial paper BusinessDay reports that the European Union will effectively outsource its assessment of the 31 July elections in Zimbabwe to the Southern African Development Community, a sign of changing international perceptions of the southern African nation.

If Sadc’s verdict is broadly positive, says BusinessDay, the 28-nation European bloc is ready to end its long cold war with the former British colony and lift remaining sanctions.

Regional paper The East African reports that Tanzania has the highest number of bribery cases involving businesses in the region.

A new Global Corruption Barometer report released by Transparency International shows that the rates of corruption in the business sector in the country are the highest in the region with a score of 3.4, followed by Burundi at 3.2 and Uganda rated at 3.

Kenya and Rwanda scored 2.7 and 1.7 respectively. The score is measured on a scale of 1 to 5, where one indicates “not at all corrupt” while five is “extremely corrupt.”

That's not the only bad news in the regional newspaper. The East African also reports that coffee and tea farmers in the region will see a sharp reduction in earnings in the remaining months of this year, following a drop in world prices of the two commodities and the continued political turmoil in Egypt, normally one of the top buyers of the region’s tea.

At the same time, latest data from the International Coffee Organisation shows that reduced prices internationally, have pushed the price of coffee to its lowest level since September 2009.

Tea and coffee exports make up the bulk of foreign currency inflows to the governments of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

The Daily Nation in Kenya tells us that the African Court has no jurisdiction to handle the crimes against humanity charges currently facing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the African Court president said on Sunday.

Lady Justice Sophia Akuffo, however, said there were plans by the African Union to expand the African Court’s jurisdiction.

Recommendation on the expansion of the court’s work is expected to be tabled before the AU Heads of State and Governments Summit in January next year.

Lady Justice Akuffo said the African Court as presently constituted could not handle criminal cases.

The same paper reports that Kenyan teachers on Sunday rejected the latest government offer and vowed to continue with the strike that has closed public schools for the past three weeks.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers said that the strikers had been offered 15 million euros and not the 75 million reported by some media.