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African press review 19 August 2011

The African papers concentrate on domestic matters today - gender issues, piracy and Kenya's property boom, Ugandan sugar, corruption allegations in SA ... plus peacekeeping in a country where war is terribly profitable.

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In Kenya, The Nation newspaper focuses on gender issues. Its front page reports that the cabinet wants the constitution changed to remove the requirement that at least a third of MPs in the next parliament are women. The paper says the cabinet concluded it was impossible.

The suggestion is that in a democratic system, elections are competitive and predicting the gender of the winner is simply not possible.

The Nation says the resolution is likely to infuriate those seeking greater women’s representation in parliament.

A member of the Federation of Women Lawyers of Kenya has threatened to go to court to block the cabinet's attempt to reduce the number of women MPs in both the National Assembly and the Senate.

Staying in Kenya, the East African looks at claims that money generated by hostage-taking by Somali pirates is fuelling a property boom in Nairobi.

The paper doubts this. Given how much pirate booty is blown on cars and khat - the narcotic leaf popular among Somalis - it would be a miracle if as much as a tenth of the ill-gotten gains had made its way from Somalia into the Nairobi property market. And 12.5 million dollars in over two years could not noticeably affect average property prices in even the smallest slum of a global city like Nairobi, the paper declares.

In neighbouring Uganda, the Daily Monitor reports that President Museveni is not ready to listen to appeals for him to drop his plan to give over 7,000 hectares of the Mabira Central Forest Reserve to the leading company to grow sugarcane.

β€œTell anybody out there that I am ready for war on sugar,” the president is quoted as saying. β€œLet us fight this war once and for all. I am not ready to listen to anybody who is saying that I save Mabira.”

The paper says businessmen are demanding to know why Museveni is so hell-bent on the scheme. Particularly as a row over the Mabira forest triggered riots in 2007.

In South Africa the Mail and Guardian reports on what it calls more dodgy deals in the department of public works. Evidently, the department has paid 68 million rand in rent for an empty building to a property group represented by the son-in-law of President Jacob Zuma.

In addition to the dodgy lease, the paper says, it now has evidence suggesting that a payment ofΒ  one million rand was chanelled to the ruling ANC and:or its senior office holders.

The paper also carries a report from a special correspondent in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The piece is headlined "Peacekeeping in a country where it pays to be at war".

The writer says that after a few days and several interviews with soldiers in different army bases in the region, as well as a few locals who agreed to speak to us for free - we are told most of them demand payment for interviews and photographs - it became abundantly clear why the DRC is referred to by the UN and aid agencies as one of the world's largest living tragedies. As for UN peacekeepers, the UN reimburses all deploying countries, including India and Bangladesh, for each soldier and all equipment used on the mission.

In Malawi The Nation describes the mood as calm but tense with many businesses closed in anticipation of an anti-government vigil. Several organisations, including the UN, advised their employees to stay at home fearing a repeat of July demonstrations.

Calm but tense. Sound like the mood in our newsroom here in Paris this morning.

Finally, in Swaziland the Times reports that there are strong calls for government to suspend the Free Primary Education programme because it is said to be unworkable.

And, in an unprecedented move, the paper says, parliamentarians yesterday snubbed a joint sitting which had been summoned by His Majesty King Mswati III.

Whether the mood is calm or tense or both, the paper doesn't say.

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