African press review 1 November 2011

Uganda's opposition leader is arrested for the eighth time in six months. Is he guilty of treason for walking to work? Kenya wants to take al Shebab to the International Criminal Court. What is Nicolas Sarkozy up to in Africa? And a court rules against Swaziland's trade unions. 

Kizza Besigye is back in the news in Uganda.

According to this morning's Kampala Daily Monitor, the Forum for Democratic Change leader was last evening released from day-long police detention, after being arrested for the eighth time in six months, as he attempted to walk to work.

Besigye was detained in Kasangati police station for nine hours and recorded a statement. He was released without charge.

Metropolitan Police Chief Andrew Kaweesi said the police will continue to arrest Besigye whenever he tries to leave his Kasangati home on foot.

The opposition leader said he would attempt to walk to work again today.

The Forum for Democratic Change launched a walk-to-work campaign earlier this year to protest against government failure to control the price of essential commodities.

The Inspector General of Police, General Kale Kayihura, recently argued that those participating in the walk-to-work demonstrations are committing a treasonous act. The Monitor asked James Mukasa Sebugenyi, president of the Uganda Law Society, for his views.

"Walking to work if done with no intention to cause death to the president or to overthrow the government by force of arms and without seducing persons in armed forces or police or prison services to breach their allegiance to the constitution in my humble opinion does not constitute a ground for charging a person with treason," he says.

"Walk to work in its form and purpose as declared by the people behind it is to allow citizens express their dissatisfactions and freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution. A peaceful demonstration is one of the ways in which citizens are entitled to express their views on issues which they think persons in authority are mishandling. Accordingly, the right to demonstrate peacefully cannot be construed as treason."

According to The Daily Nation in Nairobi, Kenya and Somalia want the International Criminal Court to investigate the leaders of the al Shebab Islamic militia for crimes against humanity.

Kenya also announced plans to go to the UN Security Council to seek support for an international naval blockade of Kismayu to starve al Shebab of income.

In a joint communiqué issued in Nairobi on Monday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his Somali counterpart Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia had given Kenya permission to pursue the group, on the understanding that the Kenyan military will hand over control of liberated areas to the local administration.

Regional newspaper The East African asks what is French President Nicolas Sarkozy up to in Africa?

The question follows the announcement by Paris last week that France would ferry supplies to Kenyan troops in Somalia.

Already this year France has led military interventions in Libya and Côte d'Ivoire.

However, says The East African, France’s role in supporting Kenya’s military action is a significant departure, signalling the country’s ambition to expand its sphere of influence to the greater east and Horn of Africa region.

Last month, French oil multinational Total announced it had acquired stakes in key blocks off the coast of Lamu, strengthening a comeback by companies eyeing opportunities in Kenya’s oil exploration business.

Over the past five years, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda have been major targets of French investments, especially in the energy sector.

The South African Sowetan reports that trade unions in Swaziland have been forced to call off mass demonstrations planned for this week after the government obtained a court order blocking them.

Unions called the strike to draw attention to a three-month paralysis of the country’s courts, which lawyers have been boycotting in protest against the dismissal of a top judge accused of insulting King Mswati III.

The unions obtained special permission from the national Law Society for their attorney to break the boycott and represent them in court.

The four-day nationwide strike was due to begin today.