African press review 13 May 2016

There's a mixture of anger, resignation and dismay as Kenya fails to meet World Anti-Doping Agency standards and now faces exclusion from the Olympic Games in Brazil. Uganda's Yoweri Museveni gets sworn in as the US and Europe walk out. And Graca Machel explains why Jacob Zuma survives as president of South Africa, despite everything.

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The Kenyan Daily Nation carries reaction to yesterday's decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency that the country is not in line with global regulations and faces exclusion from this summer's Rio Olympics.

Kenya’s participation in the games now hangs on whether or not the International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations will impose a ban.

Yesterday, Kipchoge Keino, the chairman of the Kenyan National Olympic Committee, said he was not surprised by the verdict and blamed the government for the mess in Kenyan athletics.

Keino claims he reported that that the country was in danger way back. He says the sports ministry is to blame. When he asked for a meeting with ministry officials to discuss the problem the Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario took it as a personal attack. No action was ever taken.

Jackson Tuwei, president of Athletics Kenya, said he was saddened by the news, claiming that the country had addressed all issued by the original Wada report.

Bashir visits Uganda, despite ICC warrants

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir began a two-day visit to Uganda yesterday, in defiance of an international warrant for his arrest over accusations of genocide.

This is the main story in regional paper the East African.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010, accusing him of masterminding genocide and other atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Uganda is a member of the ICC, which means it is required to act on the arrest warrant. The trip is Bashir's first to Uganda since the warrants were issued and follows Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's visit to Khartoum last year.

US and Europe walk out as Bashir strides in

The top story in the Monitor in Kampala reports that the representatives of the United States of America and the European Union yesterday walked out of President Yoweri Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony because the Sudanese president was in attendance and because Museveni used the occasion to criticise the International Criminal Court.

The Ugandan leader described the ICC as "a useless body," saying it was of no interest to Africa.

Museveni also praised China and Russia, which he called Uganda’s genuine friends and made negative comments targeting Western countries.

Drought causes havoc in southern African cereal sector

BusinessDay in South Africa reports that the 2015 winter wheat crop is down 18 percent from the previous year because of drought, according to the government’s Crop Estimates Committee.

South Africa normally imports about half of the wheat it consumes but will need to import about 60 percent of its needs this year.

BusinessDay also reports that, because of the drought, South Africa has become a net importer of white and yellow maize for the first time since 2004.

Why Zuma won't fall

Also in BusinessDay, Graca Machel says that, while many South Africans want President Jacob Zuma to step down, he will remain in place until the ruling party wants him to quit.

Zuma is facing numerous calls to leave office. In addition to recent court rulings, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is investigating if Zuma’s friends, the Gupta family, have influenced government appointments after two ANC officials said they were offered ministerial posts by family members.

Last month the High Court in Pretoria set aside the 2009 decision to drop corruption charges against Zuma, saying the decision was irrational.

Zuma is presiding over an economy that’s growing at the slowest pace since 2009 and has the highest unemployment rate in at least eight years. The ANC will, on 3 August, face opposition parties in municipal elections in which their hold over three major urban areas, including Johannesburg, is under threat.

Machel, the widow of former Mozambique leader Samora Machel, married South African President Nelson Mandela in 1998. Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda yesterday, Graca Machel said Zuma would stay in power because the ANC will not raise a hand to shift him.