African press review 6 May 2014

SA's election coverage neglects the issues, a paper claims. Have extra-judicial killings started in Kenya? Europe sends observers to Egypt. Ugandan police accuse NGO workers of burgling their own premises.

South African financial paper BusinessDay reports that the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters have dominated the media during the 2014 election campaign.

According to research conducted by Media Monitoring Africa, the three parties collectively enjoyed nearly 80 per cent of all media coverage in the seven weeks leading up to tomorrow’s national general elections.

The same report points out that much of the media coverage during the election campaign focused on party politics, campaign activities and politicians’ remarks, while sidelining issues including economics, crime, service delivery, education and social justice.

BusinessDay also reports that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union yesterday accused the platinum employers of acting in bad faith as it announced a resounding formal rejection of the latest wage offer.

The strike, over basic pay, is now into its 15th week.

The union accuses the employers of withholding important information on wages and costs and of using inflated employee numbers in making projections on affordability.

The headline to the main story in this morning's Nairobi-based Standard is a question: "Were five Nyeri youths executed over terror links?" the paper asks, going on to explain that the five people whose bodies were found dumped in a forest in Nyeri two weeks ago could have been killed because they were suspected of involvement in terrorism.

According to the Standard, two of the victims had secretly travelled to Somalia where they received military training before sneaking back into Kenya. Three days before they were executed, the two were said to have travelled to Nairobi on an undisclosed mission.

A relative of one of the deceased revealed that the family had been informed, by a person he refused to name, that the youth were killed over suspicion of being members of the al-Shebab terror group.

Initial reports suggested that the five were common criminals who had been terrorising Nyeri residents. When the bodies were discovered on 16 April relatives told journalists that the five had been picked up by police officers as they left a popular bar where they had been watching a football match.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit - a non-government organisation which campaigns against torture - alleged that the deceased were taken by four police officers and loaded into a local county government vehicle.

They were reportedly taken to Central Police Station in Nyeri the same night but their arrest was not recorded in the Daily Occurrence Book, as regulations require. The five were found dead in a nearby forest area the following day and there were no spent cartridges at the scene, according to the statement from the Independent Medico-Legal Unit.

According to the CairoDaily News, the European Union announced the launching of its observation mission in Egypt yesterday.

The mission is lead by Mario David, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament. The mission will involve 150 observers from all 28 EU member states, with additional support from Canada and Norway.

This is the first time that the EU has deployed an election observation mission to Egypt.

Polling is scheduled to take place on 26 and 27 May.

In Uganda the Daily Monitor reports that the police claim employees of non-governmental organisations are themselves responsible for the rising number of burglaries at NGO premises.

Responding to queries raised by civil society organisations following a burglary at the Human Rights Network in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb yesterday, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson said investigations conducted following break-in at Action Aid, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda have shown that the crimes had all been perpetrated by staff within the NGOs.

He said when the police start interrogating staff members, the bosses are quick to stop the investigations, claiming that their staff are being harassed by the police.