African press review 3 September 2014

Lesotho is in turmoil after an apparent coup attempt. Ugandan MPs relaunch their anti-gay bill. Kenyan senators want more money. Ebola threatens west African food supplies.

Things are not getting any easier to understand in Lesotho.

Yesterday we were quoting the Lesotho Times to the effect that Prime Minister Thomas Thabane was on his way home. Thabane was forced to flee the country for South Africa last Saturday, amid rumblings in army circles which Thabane has since described as an attempted coup.

This morning the main headline in Lesotho newspaper Public Eye reads, "Concerns over Prime Minister Tom Thabane’s whereabouts, safety". That touch of familiarity - yesterday he was Thomas, today's he's Tom - could be seen as significant.

What is clear is that Tom did not make it home yesterday.

Public Eye says the prime minister has still not arrived in the country and it remains unclear where he is.

His deputy, Mothetjoa Metsing, who is the leader of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), says he is still optimistic that the prime minister will arrive in the country later today.

The problem is that the LCD is part of an acrimonious coalition government with Thabane. The party has been accused of being in league with the military in last weekend’s effort to oust Thabane, a charge both the party and the military brass deny.

Meanwhile, again according to Public Eye, the police commissioner, whose personal whereabouts are not known, has repeated yesterday’s order to police officers, telling them to stop reporting for duty and to close all stations.

The move is intended to ensure the safety of the officers, who are allegedly being hunted by the army.

The exiled commander of the Lesotho Defence Force, Commander Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, has appealed to the army to cease rebellious acts, obey the law, return to barracks and await his taking of office. His whereabouts aren't known either.

He was appointed on 29 August to take over from Tlali Kennedy Kamoli, suspected of leading the army rebels behind the weekend coup. Somebody tried to kill Mahao the day after he was named to the top military job and he hasn't been seen since.

The Star in Johannesburg reports that South Africa and other regional governments have agreed to facilitate the return of Thabane to Lesotho. This was supposed to have happened yesterday but didn't. The Star also calls Thabane "Tom". He sounds like a man on the way out.

In Uganda the Daily Monitor reports that the Kampala parliament yesterday officially allowed the start of a process which will see the reintroduction of a strict law against homosexuality.

Several MPs wrote to parliament asking for a date to be set aside for the retabling of the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

The law was struck down by the Constitutional Court on 1 August after the judges agreed with a group of petitioners that it had been enacted without a quorum in parliament.

It was first tabled in 2009, much to the annoyance of Western countries which denounced it as an affront to human rights and reacted by cutting donor aid when it was passed in December last year.

The Standard in Kenya is annoyed that Kenyans could be forced to dig deeper into their pockets to pamper senators, who have now put up a proposal for the shilling equivalent of an extra 14 million euros annually to cover improved perks, high-end sport-utility vehicles, bigger and posher county offices and fancy seats and tables for those offices. The demand for more money will push the monthly income per senator to almost three times their current declared income.

According to the Standard, a confidential document before the Parliamentary Service Commission has the senators each seeking a 6,500-euro additional monthly allowance to cover something called "emoluments to personnel”.

Aside from the loss of lives, another grim consequence of the Ebola outbreak may be disruptions to food trade and marketing in the three west African countries most affected by the disease, according to the front page of this morning's Nigerian Guardian

The warning came yesterday from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. Ebola makes food increasingly expensive and hard to come by, while labour shortages are putting the upcoming harvest season at serious risk.

According to a special alert issued by the UN organisation covering Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, quarantine zones and restrictions on people’s movement aimed at combating the spread of the virus have seriously curtailed the movement and marketing of food. This has led to panic buying, shortages and significant food price increases on some commodities, especially in urban centres.