African press review 22 September 2017

Uhuru Kenyatta criticises Kenya's Supreme Court. His presidential opponent Raila Odinga says there'll be no rerun of the annulled poll until opposition demands are met. South Africa's ANC loses one veteran and quietly moves another into an MP's seat. And South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar says the Intergovernmental Authority for Development is no longer qualified to mediate in South Sudan's civil war.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has harshly criticised the country's Supreme Court.

According to the top story in this morning's Nairobi-based Daily Nation, Kenyatta yesterday accused the country's top court of subverting the will of Kenyans by failing to consider all the evidence presented by the electoral commission.

He said it was incomprehensible that four judges could nullify a decision by the more than eight million Kenyans who voted for him on 8 August.

One day after the Supreme Court explained its reasons for annulling the August result, the president said the judges had handled the presidential petition poorly and were misguided in their majority ruling.

The election is set to be rerun on 26 October.

Meanwhile, opposition candidate Raila Odinga has been having a go at the electoral commission, saying failures by the electoral agency must be addressed before the repeat poll.

National Super Alliance leader Odinga said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) must respect the directives given by the Supreme Court to guarantee a fair election.

“I am not afraid of facing Uhuru Kenyatta," he is quoted by the Daily Nation as saying. " However, I will not go into an election until the IEBC rectifies the mistakes pointed out by the court.”

Over at sister paper the Standard, the opposition is insisting it will not participate in the repeat elections until all their demands are met.

Raila Odinga's National Super Alliance wants Safran Morpho, the French election technology firm and the Dubai-based Al Ghurair company that printed the ballot papers, to be replaced.

ANC veteran says ruling party run by corrupt aliens

There's more trouble for South Africa's ruling party, the ANC. Lots more.

Yesterday, according to BusinessDay, party veteran Makhosi Khoza said she was quitting the ANC because the alien and corrupt values of the current leadership were keeping ordinary people poor.

Khoza, you may remember, was recently in the news for announcing her intention to vote against President Jacob Zuma on a no-confidence motion.

Yesterday she said she would not be joining the opposition Democratic Alliance because she still believes in the principles of the ANC.

"I want to free myself from the ugly‚ nasty‚ self-serving‚ factional and unprincipled contestation for positions. I have reached the conclusion that the ANC has been hijacked by these aliens," she went on to say.

"I’m asking for people of all racial groups and classes to join the crusade to rid South Africa and the African continent of corruption."

Dlamini-Zuma sworn in as MP

Which brings us to yesterday's swearing-in of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former African Union chairwoman and the ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma as an ANC member of the South African parliament.

The ceremony took place behind closed doors says BusinessDay and immediately sparked rumours of yet another reshuffle of the national executive to accommodate the new MP in Zuma’s cabinet.

Dlamini-Zuma is the Zuma faction’s preferred candidate to take over the leadership of the ANC at the party’s elective conference in December.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) is not happy. The party has described the move as nothing less than the misuse of state resources to support a candidate for the ANC presidency.

According to the DA, Dlamini-Zuma will do nothing but protect the current president and his allies while deliberately ignoring the interests of South Africa and its people.

Machar criticises IGAD role in South Sudan crisis

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar says the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, IGAD, is no longer qualified to mediate in South Sudan's civil war, according to the front page of today's Sudan Tribune.

In a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres dated 14 September seen by the Sudan Tribune, the exiled former first vice-president criticises the IGAD countries for using the crisis to advance their national interests at the expense of South Sudan.

Riek Machar, who has been refused an invitation to several meetings on the crisis, says it is now clear that IGAD is no longer qualified to lead the peace process because of its public support of the party of President Salva Kiir.