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African press review 12 February 2014

Kenya frees some suspected Islamists. The ICC tussles with Nairobi over Uhuru's bank account. Uganda is unlikely to pull its troops out of South Sudan. Splits in SA's main trade union federation may transform the country's labour landscape. 

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In Kenya the Standard reports further 33 suspects arrested during the police raid on the Masjid Musa mosque earlier this month in the coastal city of Mombasa have been released.

Those released are required to report to the authorities every week and have been warned that they will be rearrested and charged when the state gathers enough evidence to prosecute them.

One hundred and twenty-nine people were detained when police stormed the mosque to stop what they described as an outlawed jihadist convention. Seventy-one suspects remain in custody at the Shimo la Tewa Maximum Security Prison and their trial on terrorism, robbery with violence and incitement charges will resume this morning.

The legal fees of those released yesterday were paid by the Hassan Ali Joho Foundation. Hassan Joho is a local politician allied to the opposition Orange Democratic Movement.

The Standard also says that the future of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case at the International Criminal Court could be decided tomorrow.

Kenyatta is accused of complicity in the violence which followed the 2007 elections.

The Kenyan government will tomorrow make an official submission at the Hague-based court in response to a demand for access to Kenyatta’s financial records. The court prosecutor claims those accounts contain crucial evidence.

On Thursday Kenya's Attorney General Githu Muigai will seek to convince the ICC bench that the government of Kenya has correctly declined to comply with the prosecution request to release Uhuru’s financial records.

Muigai is expected to argue that the Banking Act prohibits the Central Bank of Kenya from publishing information that discloses financial affairs of any person unless the consent of that person has been secured in writing. Muigai will also argue that the prosecution request is untenable as it violates the Rome Statute, the legal constitution of the ICC.

The Kenyan Daily Nation looks to Uganda for one of its main stories, saying that Kampala has no intention of pulling troops out of South Sudan, as recently demanded by Ethiopia and the United States.

US President Barack Obama last weekend issued a strongly worded statement, calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces that have been deployed to quell the internal conflict between South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

Earlier this week Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe also called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from South Sudan, warning of a threat of regional conflict. Ugandan troops have been in South Sudan at the request of Salva Kiir since the conflict erupted on 15 December.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which has brokered a temporary ceasefire between the warring groups, recently approved the deployment of a 5,500 strong force to keep the truce.

It is not clear whether Uganda’s troops already in South Sudan will automatically be part of this force. Riek Machar’s group has demanded the withdrawal of Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces troops as one of the conditions for maintaining the truce.

Yesterday a spokesperson for the foreign affairs ministry in Kampala said the UPDF will stay put because of the possible impact of the conflict in South Sudan on Uganda’s economy and security.

In South Africa financial paper BusinessDay gives pride of place to a row which could split the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

The dispute is centred on allegations against suspended general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi but is, according to BusinessDay, a symptom of different factions’ view of the federation’s political alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party.

Cosatu has admitted that its internal battles are likely to have an effect on the ANC’s election campaign later this year.

Vavi was suspended after admitting to an affair with a junior employee. There are also allegations of irregularities concerning the sale of Cosatu’s old premises and the inflated pricing of its new premises.

Says BusinessDay, the outcome of a special meeting of Cosatu’s central executive committee earlier this week dashed the hopes of nine member unions for fresh elections, raised the spectre of further charges against Vavi and drew a line in the sand for the confederation's "errant" largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers.

The events unfolding in Cosatu are set, says BusinessDay, to change the labour landscape in South Africa.

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