African press review 5 December 2014

Kenyan MPs recommend tougher anti-terror laws. Sisi wants to ban insulting revolutions. Zilbabwe's vice-president is heading for a fall. And Liberian schoolkids want to go back to school.

Kenya is beefing up its laws against "terrorism", according to this morning's Daily Nation.  Just bear in mind that this is not a law yet but a proposal that was made by a team of MPs appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The plan follows two successive attacks that killed 64 people in Mandera County explains the Kenyan paper.

So what are the MPs proposing?

First to be able to detain terrorist suspects for longer periods than those currently authorised. If adopted, the new anti-terrorism laws would also allow the Kenyan police more powers to search premises.

The Daily Nation also points out that the bill could pave the way for the removal of security of tenure for top security officers such as the inspector-general of police. The proposals are now in the hands of President Kenyatta.

Egypt is also working on a new law ... and this one is controversial. According to the Egypt Independent, a draft bill presented by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi plans to make insulting the two revolutions of 25 January and 30 June a criminal offence.

The Cairo-based paper says the announcement has immediately sparked controversy in the country. Some, including TV journalist Ahmed Moussa, have criticised the decision and say Sisi has committed his first mistake. But another TV presenter says Sisi is trying to reunite Egyptian society, which is deeply divided between opponents and supporters of the uprisings. 

But the biggest critic of Sisi, according to the Egypt Independent, is activist Haitham Mohamedain. He explained that "placing the so-called 30 June revolution along with the 25 January revolution is in fact intended to legitimise the bloody military coup".

In Zimbabwe it seems that the vice-president isn't President Robert Mugabe’s favourite any more. South Africa's BusinessDay reports that Zimbabwe's Vice-President Joice Mujuru looks almost certain to lose her post next week as Mugabe opens his party congress.

Ten years ago, when she was appointed, it seemed that she could even succeed Mugabe as president. So what happened?

Here is BusinessDay's explanation.

Mujuru was amarried to Solomon Mujuru, the head of the Zimbabwe National Army, who was for a long time one of the most feared men in the country. But when he died three years ago, the fragility of Mujuru’s political position became obvious for the first time, explains the daily. And then, three months ago, attacks from Mugabe's wife and the state media started.

Just last month Mujuru was accused of corruption, of being behind a plot to assassinate Mugabe, of cooking for a Western diplomat and, bizarrely, of wearing a miniskirt. To many, explains Business Day, Mujuru's impending downfall appears to have been prescripted.

Liberian newspaper Front Page Africa is talking about schools this morning. Schools in Liberia have been closed since last March and the outbreak of the Ebola outbreak.

Last week Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote called all schools in Ebola-affected countries to reopen. That's why the Monrovia based paper decided to ask Liberian children what they thought of the subject.

And it seems that, unlike French schoolkids, everyone wants to go back to school. Amos is a 10-year-old who is selling juice on the streets of Monrovia. He says he misses his friends and his classes. He even has a solution to fight Ebola: have fewer pupils per classes.

And it's high time the country does something, says the paper. According to the Global Business Coalition for Education, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia about five million children are out of school due to the Ebola crisis.