African press review 19 October 2016

South Sudan's Salva Kiir denies any call for a war against Equatoria locals suspected of recent murders of Dinka people. South Africa's finance minister will not be asking the National Prosecuting Authority to review fraud charges against himself. And Uganda's parliament is determined not to let the nation's editors off the hook.

The main story in the Sudan Tribune says South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, has told state governors to control revenge attacks by those whose family members have been victims of targeted killings. The president says it is time to reconcile and move away from acts of anger and bitterness.

Kiir was referring to recent killings in South Sudan's Equatoria region targeting members of his own people, the Dinka.

The South Sudanese leader repeated earlier comments that the allegations that he gave orders to the Army Chief of Staff and other Dinka army generals to declare war against Equatorian locals in the wake of the recent killings was untrue, a dangerous rumour being spread by people who would like to take advantage of the situation.

South Africa's finance minister refuses review of fraud charges

South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will not be asking the National Prosecuting Authority to review the fraud charges the minister is set to face next month, South African financial paper BusinessDay reports.

Last week the National Prosecuting Authority issued a summons to Gordhan to appear in court on two charges of fraud related to his authorisation of early retirement for former South African Revenue Services deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay.

The minister was given until yesterday afternoon to respond to the charges.

Regional juice grid all wired to go

Regional paper the East African reports that Kenya yesterday signed a contract for an international power supply network which will link east Africa to southern African countries.

The project will take 22 months to complete.

The agreement for the Kenya–Tanzania interconnector was signed in Nairobi between the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company and the North China Power Engineering Company.

With a capacity to transfer energy in either direction, the interconnector is expected to have positive impacts on the development of renewable sources of energy in Kenya and Tanzania.

Ugandan editors again face parliamentary grilling

The row between parliament and some newspaper editors in Uganda shows no signs of calming down.

The top story in this morning's Kampala-based Daily Monitor says the parliamentary Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline yesterday insisted that editors of three media houses must appear before an ongoing inquiry into coverage of MPs’ expenses.

The committee made the ruling after editors of the Observer, Red Pepper and Uganda Radio Network for the second time rejected summons to appear before the committee to shed light on the stories that have been disputed by parliamentary authorities.

The committee will issue fresh summons for the editors to appear next Thursday, 27 October, before starting on a report to be presented to the house when it resumes on 14 November calling for action to be taken against defiant media houses.

Kenyan strategic grain reserve down to two weeks' supply

The main story in the Kenyan Daily Nation reports that the strategic grain reserve has enough maize to feed Kenyans for only two weeks as a food crisis leaves 1.3 million people facing starvation.

The current stock of 1.3 million 90-kilogramme bags of maize is about 3.5 million bags less than the amount required to cushion the country from food shortages.

The state will be obliged to turn to maize imports for relief purposes given the weakened position of the grain reserves.

The food shortage has been attributed to poor rains between March and May.

The main story in the Kenyan Standard says starvation is already a reality in five counties in the Coast region as the country faces another cycle of famine-related deaths.

State governors will be expected to come up with emergency measures after it emerged their counties have received minimal or no rains at all in the past four months.

Cairo takes legal action to stop human traffic

The Cairo-based Independent reports that Egypt has passed legislation to crack down on people traffickers. This in the wake of a major surge in the number of migrants departing from the country's Mediterranean coast.

The law passed by the Egyptian parliament is the first major official step by the largest Arab nation towards developing a strategy to combat what has turned into a growing smuggling industry along its northern seaboard.

After Turkey cut a deal with the European Union to stop the flow of migrants from its territory to the continent, increasing numbers sought to cross to Italy from the north African coast this summer.

The new law imposes prison terms and fines on those found guilty of smuggling potential migrants or acting as brokers or middlemen. It also imposes prison sentences on those who provide shelter to trafficked migrants and gather, transport or otherwise facilitate their journey.