African press review 8 December 2017

In Kenya, The Daily Nation splashes with news that police will not allow any public gathering in Nairobi to swear in opposition leader Raila Odinga as the “People’s President” on Tuesday.Following disputed elections that took place in August and were then re-played on October 30, the head of the opposition party is planning to hold a parallel swearing-in ceremony next week in a show of defiance of the election result. 

"This may set the stage for a confrontation between Mr Odinga’s supporters and the police as Kenya’s post-election crisis drags on,” says the paper.

The Kenyan Attorney-General warned that should the event take place, the opposition leader will face a charge of treason, which carries a mandatory death penalty.

Mr Odinga's NASA coalition has not revealed where it plans to hold the swearing in ceremony or whether it will be public at all.

But police could be caught off guard if it takes place outside Nairobi, warns The Nation.

The need for national unity and healing

Nairobi’s other main daily, The Standard, discusses the same topic on its editorial page.

“NASA’s move is fraught with great peril,” says the paper, “the most worrying of which is the probable, yet needless, loss of lives,” that will come if Odinga goes ahead with his plans.

“There are many lawful ways of addressing electoral injustices,” says The Standard. “None of these alternatives includes the swearing-in of a parallel president."

"Entrenching hard-line positions only serves to undermine the need for national unity and the healing of rifts exacerbated by a prolonged electioneering period."

"NASA should mobilise the public in a bid to resolve long-standing issues like inclusivity and better governance, but most importantly, sell its alternative agenda.”

The financial cost of child marriage

The Ugandan Daily Monitor is concerned with gender politics and carries a piece from Christina Malmberg Calvo from the World Bank, about the financial impact of ending child marriages.

“Despite much progress over the last two decades, girls still have lower levels of educational attainment on average than boys at the secondary school level in Uganda," she writes. "In part, this is because many girls are married or have children before the age of 18.”

“Ending child marriage today could generate up to $2.4b in annual benefits by 2030 simply from lower population growth," she argues. "In addition, women’s earnings today would be higher if they had been able to avoid marrying early. This loss in earnings is estimated at more than $500 million per year by 2030.”

The newspaper’s editorial page leads on the issue, marking the end of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

“It is critical for both the nation and individuals to reflect on mechanisms to prevent gender-based violence against women and girls,” says the paper.

The Monitor says the World Bank’s overwhelming financial data “can only mean that Uganda’s gender-related problems are a big factor in hindering development."

"While focus is often put on various development strategies to gain the desirable level of economic growth, such numbers only point to the fact that the nation’s problems could be solved by rectifying the gender divides.”

The garbage is still there

The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children also took place in South Africa, but The Mail & Guardian newspaper is more sceptical about what it achieved.

“By rolling out this extensive awareness campaign, government is seen to be doing something about abuse against women and children,” says the paper’s editorial.

“The emphasis here is on the word 'perception'. It’s like a cunning teenager who throws their garbage under the bed to hide it from their parents. The garbage is still there; it’s just buried under this facade of tidiness.

"Change entails too much work and too many difficult conversations. Change isn’t easy. Therefore they opt for perception, it keeps the status quo intact.