African press review 2 November 2017

Crisis looms in Kenya as "brothers" Uhuru and Raila replay 1960s' political battle fought by their fathers. Zimbabwe's "house of cards" hangs on the brink as unemployment and inflation continues to peak. And Nigerian airport agents arrest two traffickers with large loads of drugs in their stomachs.

We start in Kenya where the tensions remain  despite President Uhuru Kenyatta's landslide victory in the October 26 repeat elections boycotted by the opposition.

The Star reports that opposition leader Raila Odinga has announced plans to stage a One-Million-Man march in Nairobi early next month as his NASA coalition embarks on a multi-pronged rebellion against Kenyatta.

The publication says it has established that the opposition pushed the anti-Uhuru uprising to next month to allow the completion of official examinations.

The Star relays warnings from some analysts that the opposition’s rebellion against the government could plunge the country into uncharted waters and a perilous future.

"Raila and Uhuru walking in their fathers’ footsteps", is the top story in today's Daily Nation.

The paper says that the country's political foes in public, refer to one another as ‘my brother’ but in private, like their fathers, they plot for each other’s political downfall a replay of the 1960s politics between President Jomo Kenyatta and his former Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

The Standard blames the growing divisions in Kenya to what it describes as the "winner-take-all mentality". The paper explains why Uhuru Kenyatta will find it hard to lead Kenya, starting with the consequences of the power struggle on the economy.

The paper claims that despondency has cost the country more than Sh700 billion "in lost business opportunities".

Furthermore the Standard says with talk of secession gaining currency, a resistance movement has been born with an alleged boycott of goods and services in the offing.

The publication claims that under the circumstances, Uhuru Kenyatta may be the President, but his legitimacy is questionable.

“If all he cared about was becoming president for a second time”, the Standard argues, “then he is home and dry”.

South Africa's Mail and Guardian takes a deep look at the grim economic picture of Zimbabwe where unemployment reportedly stands at around 90 percent.

The publication claims that President Robert Mugabe’s latest response has been to replace finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, who had been warning of the structure’s fragility in ever more urgent tones.

According to the Mail and Guardian, the new finance minister Ignatius Chombo, is a "party loyalist, who will brook no talk of any need for structural reform".

The paper describes the financial system as a "house of cards", where the government is again printing money to cover its spiraling costs and spiraling inflation.

Mail and Guardian says that were one card to give way, like South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, asking Zimbabwe to pay for the electricity it supplies the country, the entire edifice would collapse.

The publication claims that with an election looming in 2018, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF doesn’t want to cut-back.

And in Nigeria, Punch takes up reports from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency that operatives arrested two suspects at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, on Wednesday as they tried to smuggle large quantities of methamphetamine out of the country.

The paper reports that the two suspects were intercepted by agents with up to 110 sachets of the drugs in their stomachs, as they prepared to board a flight to Indonesia on Wednesday.

According to Vanguard one of the traffickers was a 37-year-old woman, transporting up to 1.9kg of cocaine in her "family jewel".