African press review 5 January 2017

The Kenyan doctors' strike continues, despite yesterday's personal intervention by President Uhuru Kenyatta. South Africa is listed by Time magazine as one of the planet's 10 biggest risks for 2017. The Sudanese government says it has reached agreement with two Darfur rebel movements on major issues.

The Kenyan government has offered doctors a 40 percent pay rise to end their month-long strike, this morning's Daily Nation reports.

In an offer announced from State House after a day-long meeting between the doctors’ union officials and President Uhuru Kenyatta, the least-paid doctor would take home a monthly salary of about 1,795 euros, up from the current 1,280.

The statement said the pay rise is cumulative of allowances offered to the doctors on various job levels.

The meeting comes after doctors called on the president to exercise his executive authority and end the strike.

After the six-hour meeting, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union Secretary-General Ouma Oluga said they appreciated president’s effort but had not accepted any agreement.

Conspicuously absent from the meeting was the council of governors, the body that employs more than 80 percent of the striking health workers.

Sister paper the Standard says the striking doctors were yesterday offered an enhanced pay package at a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta but they have sought more time to consider the proposals.

South Africa makes Time's top 10 risks for 2017

South Africa has made it into a new Time magazine list of the world’s top 10‚ but not in a positive way.

The list is of the planet’s biggest risks in 2017 and a struggling South Africa features at number 10.

The article says the deeply unpopular President Jacob Zuma‚ beset by corruption allegations‚ is afraid to pass power to someone he doesn’t trust.

The resulting infighting over succession has stalled any momentum toward crucial economic reform in the country and limits South Africa’s ability to offer the leadership needed to stabilise conflicts inside neighbouring countries.

Top of Time’s list is the unpredictability thrust on the world by this month’s inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.

The second greatest risk is China’s possible overreaction to Trump provocations. In third place is the risk of a power vacuum in Europe.

Paul Kagame faces pressure from beyond Rwanda's borders

Regional paper the East African looks at the prospects for the coming year for Rwandan President Paul Kagame, suggesting that his biggest worries will come from outside Rwanda's borders.

After a resounding endorsement in December 2015 that saw 98 percent of voters support a third term for the president, the East African says his worries will be focused elsewhere in 2017.

With the majority of the "opposition" already quietly aligned with the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front, Kagame faces opposition only from the largely inconsequential Green Party.

Besides the uncertainties in the global economic environment, the immediate worries for the president will be his close neighbours. Burundi remains tense while the Democratic Republic of Congo is restive in the wake of President Joseph Kabila failure to vacate his post after two mandates

The outcome of the French election also due in 2017 could mean continuing hostilities with a major European power.

Khartoum on brink of deal with Darfur rebel movements

The government in Khartoum says it has reached agreement with two Darfur rebel movements on major issues, says the Sudan Tribune.

Last August direct peace talks in Addis Ababa, between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement under the auspices of the African Union collapsed after rebels rejected government requests to disclose fighters’ locations.

According to the Sudan Tribune report, recent informal negotiations have resolved all major outstanding issues and the government hopes to settle the issue completely in the coming rounds of talks.

The Sudanese army and allied militia have been fighting a number of armed movements in the west-central province of Darfur since 2003.