African press review 15 December 2011

A top Ugandan minister is squeezed out. But Kenya's anti-corruption fight looks set to be held up again. Why is the fight against al Shebab not going better? Is South Africa headed for stagflation? Zimbabwe saves its plane. And Tsvangirai is accused of mistreating his wife.

Former Ugandan cabinet minister, Kabakumba Masiko, is all over the front page of this morning's Daily Monitor in Kampala.

That's because she resigned her job as minister for the presidency yesterday, following allegations of abuse of office.

The problem is that police found equipment belonging to the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) being used at a radio station owned by ex-minister Masiko.

Masiko, who said her radio station had borrowed the equipment temporarily, denied that the UBC radio transmitter and mast had been stolen.

On inside pages the Monitor wonders why Masiko didn't get more support from President Yoweri Museveni.

The president has, for example, been loud in his defence of Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, one of three ministers under investigation by the parliamentary committee looking into alleged dirty dealing in the oil sector.

And that's just the problem, according to the Kampala daily because the oil row has already put parliament and the executive on a collision course, Museveni decided to sacrifice Masiko.

The main story in Kenya's Daily Nation is that the formation of the new anti-corruption commission is likely to be delayed again, after a parliamentary committee rejected three nominees proposed by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament interviewed the three on Wednesday morning and concluded that they were not sufficiently enthusiastic about the fight against corruption.

The committee went on to recommend that parliament reject the three nominees, citing the candidates' lack of passion, initiative and drive.

Regional newspaper The East African asks why Kenya is not making any strides in the war against al Shebab two months into a Kenyan army incursion into Somalia.

The East African claims that Kenyan Defence Forces in Somalia have not made any significant territorial progress over the past four weeks.

The regional daily says four major factors have bogged down the military campaign.

They are:

• a lack of finance;
• the differences between interested parties over whether to divide Somalia into autonomous regions or maintain one united country;
• differences over the option to engage al Shebab in a political dialogue;
• the ambivalence of Somalia’s President Sheikh Shariff Ahmed.

Kenya Defence Forces spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir maintains that the reason the Kenyan advance has slowed down is because troops are combining their offensive operations with a major humanitarian effort.

The importance of Kenya’s intervention has been recognised by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who last week said in Nairobi that Kenya’s efforts offered an opportunity to the people of Somalia to achieve stability and prosperity after 20 years of civil war.

BusinessDay in South Africa warns that monthly inflation last month passed six per cent for the first time since January 2010.

South Africa is now on course for a period of "stagflation" says BusinessDay. Stagflation, in case you were wondering, occurs when inflation and unemployment are high while economic growth is slowing.

Consumer prices in South Africa rose 6.1  per cent last month compared with November 2010, up from 6.0 per cent in October. The increase was driven mainly by higher food prices.

Analysts are predicting that growth will continue to slow in response to the deteriorating global environment, most notably in Europe, which is South Africa’s main trading partner.

The Herald in Harare reports that government yesterday managed to raise the US$1,2 million needed to stop the auction of an Air Zimbabwe plane that was impounded at London's Gatwick airport on Monday.

The Airzim acting chief executive said the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development, had secured the money and hoped to complete the transfer today.

The Boeing was impounded for the non-payment of fees to an American spare parts supplier.

Also in the Zimbabwe Herald, it's reported that a cabinet minister yesterday criticised women's groups for remaining silent over Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's sexual behaviour.

Regional Integration and International Co-operation Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the way the PM was treating his new wife Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo was a form of domestic violence. Tsvangirai married Tembo but terminated the relationship within 12 days.

Speaking at a regional gender-based violence conference in Harare, Misihairabwi-Mushonga said women's organisations should unite to fight the scourge of violence against women.

The minister also blamed the media, saying that shocking newspaper headlines which cripple readers' emotions are another form of gender-based violence.