Skip to main content

African Presse Review 11 December 2017

Cancelled Sswearing-ins in Kenya, digital broadcasting on the continent and the fight against child marriage in Uganda are some of the storiesin today's African press.

Advertising

In Kenya, the Daily Nation is headlining: “Hidden players who made Raila Odinga delay his 'swearing-in' ”. Indeed the opposition leader yesterday postponed his controversial ceremony which was due to take place this Tuesday.

According to the paper this is the doing of foreign diplomats and an “internal push” to steer away from violence. The ceremony “would have taken place at the Tononoka Grounds in Mombasa County as area.”

Musalia Mudavadi, NASA’s co-principle, said the reasons for this change would be made official on Monday and added they were “internal, national and international interventions” and that the coalition will announce new dates of both the swearing-in ceremony and the launch of the People’s Assembly, as well as a more vigorous and prolonged resistance to Mr Kenyatta's government in the coming days.”

Over in Nigeria, The Guardian looks at the digitalisation of broadcasting on the African continent and in Nigeria in particular. The technological change occurred there properly from 2015 onwards.

The author laments the government’s lack of funding for the project and draws comparison with Rwanda, the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to migrate from analogue television transmission to digital broadcasting (as of June of 2014).

The Guardian calls for "Nigeria to adopt the same modality and stop further muddying up of a scientific process that must not be thrown into the cesspool of corruption or used for political pugilism."

The switch to digital broadcasting has boosted the industry, "with a number of local TV stations setting up shop" with cheaper local content that suits viewers’ preferences."

“If we get it right in Nigeria”, says The Guardian “the benefits will be tremendous. TV proprietors will have to come up with new marketing strategies to attract adverts."

Over in Sudan, a judge has cleared 24 girls of indecent clothing charges. The Sudan Tribune reports that the young women, most of them from South Sudan, were arrested for wearing tight trousers and short skirts last Thursday as they attended a women’s concert in Al-Mamoura.

The girls were charged under article 152 of the Sudanese Criminal Code concerning wearing obscene clothing.

Although the girls avoided 40 odd lashes the organiser was found guilty of providing false information and ordered to pay a 10,000 pounds fine or face a month’s imprisonment in case of non-payment.

Authorities are said to have been told it was a family event and not a commercial event for cosmetics and beauty products.The court also fined the sound technician 5,000 pounds for violating the Public Order Law.

Staying with girls but this time in Uganda, parliament speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, and Kyabazinga of Busoga, His Royal Highness, Gabula IV “have vowed to fight defilement, child marriages and teenage pregnancies in Busoga region”.

According to the Daily Monitor “This follows a report conducted by Plan International, a child-centred organisation which has revealed that 2,051 girls were reportedly defiled in Kamuli between 2012 and September 2017”.

The newspaper states that although 2017 has so far been the lowest year in defilement, it has been the highest when it comes to children suffering from domestic violence. The organisation does however feel that their work on the ground and their campaign to "End Child Marriages, Keep Girls In School" is having some effect because the reporting of domestic violence and child marriage is on the rise.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.