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African press review 12 September 2016

The Ugandan police are doing a fine job, according to President Yoweri Museveni. Business leaders and trade unions in South Africa are not sure you can say as much for Jacob Zuma. Is Mohammed Atta still alive? His mother thinks so. And why do Nigerians spend so much on imported food?

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The main story in the Ugandan Daily Monitor reports that the Inspector General of Police, General Kale Kayihura, has thanked President Yoweri Museveni for supporting the police when the force came under public criticism for allegedly brutalising Opposition supporters.

Last month, General Kayihura and seven senior police officers appeared in court in a private prosecution on charges of torturing supporters of Forum for Democratic Change stalwart Kizza Besigye.

Activists alleged that Kayihura had failed to manage his officers and demanded that he be dismissed.

Several officers face hearings before the police disciplinary commission for their alleged mistreatment of Museveni opponents.

The president yesterday said he thought the lads were doing a great job.

Kenyan Police Airwing loses altitude

In Kenya, the Daily Nation suggests that technical failure could have caused last week’s police helicopter crash near Nairobi, raising concerns that the government might have bought a faulty aircraft, according to a preliminary investigation.

Investigators from the manufacturers AugustaWestland are expected in Kenya later this week to establish the fault that led to the crash, just four months after the helicopter was bought.

Investigations also show that the National Police Airwing does not operate optimally despite the billions of shillings that have been set aside to revamp it.

Issues involving training, procurement, safety management, maintenance and airworthiness have emerged in the last two years that point to a poorly managed unit.

In the last month, two aircraft owned by the police have crashed in Nairobi.

Business and unions find common ground against Zuma

BusinessDay in South African reports that business and labour are putting the heat on president Jacob Zuma.

The paper says Zuma is increasingly viewed as responsible for the loss of confidence in the government and the ruling ANC.

AngloGold Ashanti chairman Sipho Pityana has called on South African business leaders to take a political stand, saying it was time to act to force the government to change course. And it has emerged, says BusinessDay, that the overwhelming majority of Cosatu affiliates want Zuma out of office. Cosatu is the Confederation of South African Trade Unions and a traditional ally of the ruling party.

There is apparently a convergence of opinion within Cosatu that Zuma has lost the confidence of workers and should step down as president of the country after the ANC national conference in 2017, or even earlier.

Mother says 9/11 suspect is innocent and still alive

The main story in the Egypt Independent says the mother of Mohamed Atta, one of the alleged kamikaze hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center in 2001, says she believes her son is alive at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Bozaina Mohamed Mustafa Sheraqi told Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo that Atta   one of the alleged masterminds behind the September 11, 2001 attacks   was the victim of an elaborate US plot and had done nothing wrong.

Atta's mother says she believes her son is in Guantanamo, the US terrorist prison in Cuba, and she says she wants to see him before she dies. She is 74 years old. She spoke to the newspaper by telephone from Cairo where she lives with her two daughters.

She claims that the United States "is hiding the truth. They are the ones who designed this attack to spread the idea that Islam is terrorism. They selected people with Arab passports to blame them and, at the same time, shame our nations and divide us," she added.

The newspaper said it was the first interview which Bozaina has granted since 9/11.

Atta's family has long claimed they believe he had nothing to with the attacks and was alive.

After Mohamed Atta was first identified as one of the 19 hijackers of 9/11, his late father   a lawyer who died in 2008   flatly denied it, claiming his son had phoned him from an undisclosed location the day after the attack.

Nigeria's indigestible food import bill

The daily paper Punch reports that Nigeria spends about 20 billion euros every year on food imports.

According to the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, failure to produce food locally was forcing prices up. Given that Nigeria’s population is likely to reach 450 million by 2050, the minister asked what the situation was likely to be then if Nigerians fail to feed themselves now.

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