African press review 22 August 2013

Plans to bring Ruto and Kenyatta to the ICC run into more complications. Zimbabweans get their chance to see Mugabe sworn in. A new case of an Ebola-like disease may have appeared in Uganda. And SA police swoop on an alleged child-porn ring.

New complications have arisen in the preparation for the trials of Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

The Kenyan newspaper the Standard reports there is a growing likelihood that both the president and his deputy, who are facing charges of crimes against humanity, could be required to attend the trials simultaneously, which could be problematic.

The physical constraints of courtroom space mean that some flexibility in case scheduling will be required, reports the daily, and the court does not have the physical capacity to have consecutive sittings in all its cases between now and the end of the trial.

There are two separate trial chambers for the two cases, meaning that the court has contemplated a situation where the duo might appear simultaneously but separately.

A scenario where the president and his deputy are out of the country at the same time would cause “practical difficulties” in Kenyan affairs, explains the paper, and the country’s Cconstitution does not allow the two to abandon their stations at the same time.

Kenya is a willing member of the ICC and therefore it was the duty of the ICC to ensure that the trial does not inconvenience one of its members, it adds.

Ruto’s trial begins in a fortnight on 10 September. His boss will be meeting with the ICC on 12 November.

In Zimbabwe today has been declared a public holiday to allow people to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Robert Mugabe.

The Zimbabwean president's inauguration will be held in a 60,000-seat sports stadium on the outskirts of the capital, Harare, reports the South African daily Mail & Guardian.

The ceremony promises to be more high-profile than in previous years, explains the paper, a show of power designed to confer legitimacy on Mugabe, amid persistent allegations of electoral fraud in last month's election.

Mugabe’s election opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, who had challenged the election results in a petition to the Constitutional Court and lost, said he would not attend what he qualified as a “robber’s party”.

The celebration occurs a day after one of the founders of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, veteran nationalist Enos Nkala died of of heart and kidney failure, reports the Zimbabwean daily theHerald.

Mugabe described Nkala as a great, staunch, unyielding and dependable liberation war fighter whose death is a great loss to the nation.

Ugandan health authorities are strongly concerned by the appearance of a new suspected case of an Ebola-like disease.

The Ugandan Daily Monitor reports on a new suspected case of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever, an Ebola-like illness, that has been registered in the Agago district.

This new case brings the total number of people under surveillance in the isolation ward at the local hospital to seven.

The Agago district health officer reports that, since the outbreak of the disease, one person has died.

The paper reports that the Ugandan health ministry has asked residents to remain calm as health teams are working to tackle the situation. It will be training more healthworkers and local leaders to handle any more cases that might arise.

Six men allegedly linked to an international child-pornography ring have been arrested in parts of South Africa.

The South African daily The Sowetan reports that two American teachers, a German lawyer, as well as a school principal, a dermatologist and a businessman from South Africa were arrested last week, suspected of being part of an international child-pornography organisation.

Another 26 people were being investigated and more arrests were imminent, police told the Sowetan.

The ring appears to have links with Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, western Europe and Australasia, reports the paper, and the case involves pornographic images and videos of children as young as five years old.