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African press review 30 August 2017

President Kenyatta fights "smoking gun" brandished by Raila Odinga at decisive election battle in Kenya's Supreme Court. Nigeria's oil company undergoes extensive shake-up and South Africa's top clerics call time on bogus prophets feeding fat on the vulnerable.

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We begin in Kenya and the judicial battles waged at the Supreme Court by opposition leader Raila Odinga in a bid to invalidate the Presidential elections results proclaimed by the Independent Electoral Commission handing victory to incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta.

Odinga's defence team pointed to, what Daily Nation describes as a smoking gun: 56 result sheets allegedly signed by the chairman of the elections commission which bore no security features and watermarks with up to five forms that were not signed by returning officers and 31 forms without serial numbers.

Also The Kenyan Star says that Odinga's chief agent raised an audit ordered by the Supreme Court, showing that nearly five million votes were affected due to what they describe as the use of forgery, alternation of documents, fakery and deception.

According to the Standard, President Kenyatta's lawyers pleaded with the Supreme Court to ignore calls by Raila Odinga to include rejected votes in the final tally testifying that he received 25 per cent of the votes in 39 counties needed to win the election.

 

South Africa's, Mail and Guardian says that Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory is on hold pending a decision by Kenya’s highest court expected in early September. According to the publication, Raila Odinga's petition is effectively an audit of the electoral process and a good thing.

Mail and Guardian argues that to build resilience against election-related disputes, Kenyans must stay open to legal arbitration as a way of vetting the democratic process, and standing up for stronger democratic values.

 

In Nigeria, Vanguard leads with the shake-up at the country's National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). According to the paper, 55 top executives of the giant company were replaced in the reshuffle.

The paper quotes the NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, as saying that the new appointments would not only help to position the corporation to face the challenges ahead but help fill the gaps left by the retiring officials.

Vanguard reports that the NNPC also announced a 123 percent increase in the daily supply with the country's three refineries produced nearly six million litres of diesel and petrol, per day.

 

And in South Africa, the Sowetan relays a strongly-worded statement from the country's leading clerics denouncing bogus evangelists who push congregants to eat snakes‚ hair and drink petrol‚ for so-called “spiritual benefits“.

The paper reports that Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana‚ head of the South African Council of Churches spoke in Johannesburg on Tuesday at the launch of the National Convention on the country's problems.

Mpumlwana reportedly warned that his organisation will no longer stand by and watch fake prophets take advantage of the emotional and spiritual vulnerability of poor communities.

The Sowetan reports that the Bishop’s anger was sparked by a recent investigation by the CRL Rights Commission showing that some church owners were trading ‘spiritual services' for money.

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