African press review 7 May 2016

What will happen to the African Union mission to Somalia if Kampala decides to withdraw the 6,000 Ugandan troops currently serving there as peacekeepers? Who killed controversial Kenyan businessman Jacob Juma? Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga says the killers are the people supposed to investigate such crimes, so an official investigation will be a waste of time.

DR

The Ugandan army could withdraw from peacekeeping missions in Somalia and the Central African Republic. This is reported on the front page of regional newspaper the East African.

According to an army spokesperson, a special committee has been put together to review Uganda's peacekeeping role.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni recently mentioned the possible end of both missions to foreign diplomats.

Uganda has played a crucial role in bringing relative stability to the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The country provides more than 6,000 soldiers, the largest national contingent, to the African Union mission in Somalia.

It's in the pipeline

The East African also reports that Tanzania is planning to build a pipeline to supply natural gas to Uganda.

The gas pipeline is described by the regional paper as the latest move to deepen commercial ties between the two countries.

Uganda is planning to build a pipeline to export its oil through Tanzania although it originally favoured a route though Kenya.

France’s Total, one of the oil firms developing Uganda’s fields, raised security concerns about the Kenyan route.

A Kenyan pipeline could at points run near Somalia, from where Al-Shebab has launched several attacks.

Who killed Jacob Juma?

Several papers in east Africa give front-page prominence to the Thursday night shooting dead in Nairobi of the controversial Kenyan businessman Jacob Juma.

His bullet-riddled vehicle was found in a ditch.

Police say nothing was stolen from the businessman as two mobile phones and cash were found in the vehicle.

In this morning's Nairobi-based Standard newspaper, opposition political leader says Jacob Juma was executed.

Explaining that Juma had phoned him asking for an urgent meeting just before the shooting, former prime minister Raila Odinga said the death was planned in advance.

He said it was useless to call for investigations into the murder because such efforts don’t yield results.

“The people who are supposed to investigate are the killers," according to Raila Odinga. "I call upon Kenyans to resist this state of anarchy. We can’t live in a country where security agents meant to protect people are the ones eliminating them."

Sisi silent on stand-off with journalists

The top story in the Cairo-based Egypt Independent reports that the Egyptian government has continued to ignore the ongoing standoff between the Interior Ministry and the Egyptian journalists' union.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made two public appearances in the past week without referring to the issue at all.

The crisis errupted on Sunday 1 May, when police officers entered the union's headquarters in downtown Cairo and arrested two journalists on a warrant from the public prosecutor. Amr Badr, editor-in-chief of yanair.net, and Mahmoud al-Sakka, a journalist working for the same news website, were arrested on suspicion of inciting anti-government protests.

The arrests came as a part of a broader police crackdown on journalists since 25 April, when mass anti-government protests were planned in response to the transfer of two Red Sea islands from Egyptian control to that of Saudi Arabia as part of a maritime demarcation agreement.

It's the economy, stupid!

South Africa faces a challenging economic environment and policy makers will have to be careful not to hamper already weak growth.

This is according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement, issued yesterday, following a recent visit by IMF staff members as part of their annual consultation with local leaders on policy.

South Africa’s budget targets will be difficult to achieve if economic growth was low, the fund said. The IMF sees economic growth slowing from 1.3 percent last year to 0.6 percent this year.

The report forecasts "muted" economic growth recovery from next year. Further shocks from China, heightened global financial volatility and credit rating downgrades could see the South African economy growing more slowly than forecast.