African press review 2 May 2013

Kenya's low-paied get a pay rise. A photographer reportedly gets roughed up at a union rally. Are miniskirts pornography? How many business opportunities are there in South Sudan? And yet more bad news for the world economy.

In Kenya the Daily Nation gives pride of place to the news that President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday announced a 14 per cent increase in the minimum wage, with immediate effect.

The president also said his government would step up measures to ensure that jobs that can be done by Kenyans will be limited to citizens.

Also in the Nation, a report that doctors collected 52 samples for testing to establish the cause of Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo’s death.

Kilonzo was found dead, alone at his ranch, last weekend.

A source close to the family and a doctor involved in the investigations said they would conduct a wide range of tests, including for the radiation poison, Polonium 210.

All the tests will be conducted locally and no samples will be sent abroad.

Thousands of people on Wednesday turned up for the Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Park in Nairobi as Kenyatta addressed his first public event since his 9 April inauguration.

The occasion was briefly disrupted when former Standard Media Group photojournalist Boniface Mwangi tried to shout down Central Organisations of Trade Unions secretary-general Francis Atwoli for “supporting” the clamour by MPs for salary increment.

Mwangi was beaten up, according to The Daily Nation, and manhandled by security personnel before being taken to the police cells in full view of guests including Kenyatta.

Mwangi shouted: “Traitor! Traitor!” as Atwoli stood up to speak. The crowd scattered as security personnel chased Mwangi before bringing him down but Atwoli continued with his speech saying “those making noise” were not Central Organisations of Trade Union members.

Regional newspaper The East African offers to unravel "The long and short of the miniskirt debate" in Uganda.

What you need to know is that public frenzy on the question of hemlines was sparked by the tabling of the Anti-Pornography Bill in Parliament last month. This bill seeks to clarify the nature of pornography in Uganda’s laws and provide penalties for it.

Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo, who presented the proposed law backed by Deputy Attorney-General Fred Ruhindi, said the bill was needed to curb immorality. He said pornography fuels sexual crimes against women and children.

“Any attire that exposes intimate parts of the human body, especially areas that are of erotic function, is outlawed. Anything above the knee is outlawed. If a woman wears a miniskirt, we will arrest her,” he said.

It was at this point, explains The East African, that the Anti-Pornography Bill became the Miniskirt Bill.

The regional paper says there are two reasons for this focus on what is, let's be honest, a side issue to a serious debate: in the first instance, the miniskirt makes the debate on morality easy, with the divide between liberals and conservatives drawn clearly at the knee.

Secondly, the miniskirt is symbolic of all that is morally dubious and of Western origin.

The East African reminds readers that police in Swaziland last year started cracking down on women in miniskirts and midriff-revealing tops, saying they were provoking rape. Offenders face a six-month jail sentence, based on legislation which dates from 1889.

A separate story in The East African says that Kenya has embarked on a fresh bid to increase cross-border trade with South Sudan, hoping to benefit from improved relations between Juba and Khartoum with the resumption of oil exports from the South.

Kenya’s Export Promotion Council has concluded a feasibility study aimed at identifying new business opportunities.

Among other things, the study considered the possibility of building warehouses in South Sudan where Kenyan manufacturers could repackage bulk goods into smaller sizes for sale on the local market.

Export Promotion Council chairman Hudson Aluvanze said South Sudan, if well tapped, could be the game-changer in boosting Kenyan exports.

The financial pages of South Africa's business paper, BusinessDay, report more bad news for the global economy.

Growth in China’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in April as new export orders fell, raising fresh doubts about the strength of the dragon economy after a disappointing first quarter.

The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 50.6 in April from an 11-month high in March of 50.9. Analysts had expected the April PMI to be 51.0.

The eurozone recession and sluggish growth in the US are the main suspects.