African press review 24 October 2015

Nigerian police claim to have arrested 45 suspected members of Boko Haram who were planning terrorist attacks in Lagos. South Africa's university students force the government to climb down on increased fees. Rwanda denies any responsibility for the current unrest in Burundi.

The main story in Nigerian daily paper Punch reports that the special police of the Department of State Services have arrested 45 suspected Boko Haram members in connection with a foiled attack planned for Lagos in September.

The suspects appeared briefly in a Lagos court yersterday and were remanded in custody.

The same paper says at least 58 people lost their lives in yesterday's suspected Boko Haram attacks on two mosques in north-eastern Borno State.

"Forty thousand Kenyans face the sack as cash crisis bites," declares the main headline in this morning's Daily Nation.

According to the report, nearly 40,000 public servants will lose their jobs as the government tightens the screws in an effort to tame the wage bill.

A job freeze will also be imposed as part of the government’s drive to cope with the cash crunch.

Many of those who will lose their jobs are in positions made redundant by changes to the constitution.

They include members of the former provincial administration and those in the agriculture, health and devolution ministries whose functions have now been devolved to the regions.

Over at the Nairobi-based Standard, the main story reports that opposition leader Raila Odinga has accused the Jubilee government of engaging in a looting spree at the expense of hapless Kenyans.

Odinga says the Jubilee coalition government has been strategically skewing the budget in favour of areas where very little ingenuity is needed to siphon off funds. He cited the National Youth Service, the police, the National Intelligence Service and the Eurobond. He claims that these services have been receiving budget votes in excess of their actual needs. The idea is to make the money easily accessible to corrupt cartels in government, according to the opposition leader.

Further down the same Standard front page we read that Members of Parliament from across the political divide have closed ranks in another attempt to have the United Nations Security Council stymie the International Criminal Court case against Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto.

Ruto is accused of complicity in the violence which followed the 2007 presidential election.

One hundred and ninety MPs and senators have petitioned the Security Council to have the case suspended.

South African university students appear to have won the battle over fees.

The main story in Johannesburg-based financial paper BusinessDay reports that President Jacob Zuma announced yesterday that there will be no university fee increases for 2016.

Business Day says students have succeeded in forcing the government and universities to agree to a moratorium on fee increases for the next year after shutting down universities and protesting for more than a week.

Regional paper The East African says Rwanda has dismissed accusations of meddling in neighbouring Burundi's political crisis.

"Burundi's problem is not Rwanda, Burundi's problem is Burundi," Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told reporters in Kigali.

Burundi, where a 13-year civil war ended in 2006, has been rocked by violence since April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a controversial bid for a third term in power.

Relations between Kigali and Bujumbura deteriorated after Rwandan leader Paul Kagame urged Nkurunziza to end his bid for a third term.

The Rwandan capital Kigali has become a refuge for many Burundian opposition and civil society activists   as well as dissidents from Nkurunziza's ruling party. Burundi also claims that rebel forces   set up by mutinous soldiers after a failed coup in May   are also sheltered in Kigali and benefit from Rwandan support.