African press review 4 December 2014

The Kenyan Daily Nation says that the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court is close to collapse.

You'll know that Kenyatta faces charges of complicity in organising the violence which followed Kenya's 2007 presidential election.

According to the Nation, the case against Kenyatta was on the verge of collapse yesterday after the judges gave the prosecutor seven days to withdraw her charges if she does not have the evidence to go to trial.

On 8 October, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court that nothing had changed since her previous report in December 2013: then, she admitted that she did not have sufficient evidence to prove that Kenyatta was guilty of crimes against humanity.

She now admits to being unsure if whatever new evidence she could obtain, principally from the Nairobi government and Kenyatta’s bank and telephone records, would be enough to convict.

Unless Bensouda has found new witnesses or comes upon records or other evidence that would bolster her case, then in a week she must go to court and request the judges to withdraw the case. If she does not, the judges are likely step in and do so themselves.

Says the Daily Nation, the three judges left the door open for Bensouda, should she withdraw the current case, to charge Kenyatta afresh with the same offences if she obtains worthwhile evidence at some point in the future.

The Johannesburg-based financial paper BusinessDay reports that nearly a quarter of South Africans do not believe that apartheid was a crime against humanity.

The latest South African Reconciliation Barometer, released yesterday, shows just under 25 per cent feel apartheid was not a crime, with nearly half of the whites surveyed agreeing.

The survey suggests that South Africa is in danger of losing its national memory.

While 53 per cent of whites questioned agreed with the statement that apartheid was a crime against humanity, the figure among the black population was more than 80 per cent. When the survey was first conducted in 2003, 87 per cent of South Africans agreed that apartheid was a crime. The latest report shows that figure standing at 76 per cent.

Kim Wale, the barometer’s project leader, said this was an indication of how history was being taught. "The danger of forgetting is that it encourages denial," he warned, adding that "the implication is that we are doomed to repeat the past."

Also in BusinessDay, a report that spending on infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to reach 200 billion euros a year by 2025, according to the latest report from global consultants, Price, Waterhouse, Coopers.

That's more than twice the amount the World Bank says the continent currently needs for infrastructure.

Transport, energy and water are the main sectors concerned, with Africa accounting for only 2 per cent of the global infrastructure market at the moment.

In Cairo, the Egypt Independent reports that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both harshly criticised Egypt yesterday following the death sentences against 188 Islamists, just days after murder charges were dropped against former president Hosni Mubarak.

A Cairo court sentenced 188 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to death on Tuesday for their part in the killing of 13 policemen in a village on the outskirts of Cairo on 14 August 2013.

The defendants were found guilty of killing the officers in Kerdassa on the day security forces forcibly dispersed two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo, an operation that left hundreds of demonstrators dead.

A Cairo court on Saturday dismissed murder and corruption charges against former president HosniMubarak and seven of his aides in a case involving the deaths of some of the 800 demonstrators killed during the 2011 revolt that ended the veteran leader's three decade long rule.

The prosecution has filed an appeal against the Mubarak verdict.

Nigerian daily paper Punch gives pride of place to the news that the global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has ranked Nigeria as the 39th most corrupt nation in the world.

According to the Corruption Perception Index 2014 released yesterday, Nigeria scored 27 out of a maximum 100 marks to clinch 136th position out of the 175 countries surveyed for the report.

Nigeria appeared to have improved by eight points against its 2013 rating of 144th of 175 countries last year.

Denmark is the least corrupt nation in the world, ranking first out of the 175 countries surveyed while North Korea and Somalia jointly occupy the bottom spot in the table.