African press review 26 June 2013

Kenya's teachers' strike floods the African news headlines today, while Uganda is in discussions over two proposed oil pipeline projects.

In Kenya, the Standard gives pride of place to the teachers strike in an article headlined, "Stand-off as State Rejects Teachers Salary Demands".

The Nairobi-based daily goes on to say that government and teachers’ unions hardened their positions yesterday, on the first day of a strike that crippled learning in Kenyan public schools.

Labour secretary Kazungu Kambi flatly rejected the demand by the Kenya National Union of Teachers for a one-off payment of 411 million euros arising from a 1997 award.

He described as unreasonable the demand for implementation of a legal notice that was not signed by President Kenyatta’s government.

Kambi was referring to the contentious 1997 legal notice that details higher housing, plus medical and commuter allowances to teachers.

In a quick rejoinder, the Kenya National Union of Teachers warned Kambi against playing politics with the teachers’ “well negotiated and gazzetted agreements”.

Across the country, the Standard says, classrooms remained empty after children were sent back home by teachers, who later took to the streets to press for higher pay.

In a separate story, the Standard reports that in Makueni County, seven Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers officials were arrested for attempting to force non-striking teachers from schools.

The officials spent more than four hours in Makindu Police Station after they were arrested at St Joseph Girls’ Secondary School, where they were allegedly addressing teachers in a bid to woo them into supporting the strike.

Across the city, at the Daily Nation, the main headline reads "Kambi disowns 1997 salary deal with teachers".

According to the Nation, Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi declared the strike called by the Kenya National Union of Teachers on Monday illegal and said there was no agreement. He said the strike, which enters its second day today, should be called off.

The strike disrupted learning in all government primary and secondary schools, as teachers kept away from the institutions.

Regional newspaper the East African reports that two Australian Securities Exchange-listed exploration firms are trying to sell part of their exploration rights on a block off the coast of Kenya, to raise funds that will be used for drilling.

The companies own all of a drilling block with combined prospective resources assessed at 3.7 billion barrels of oil or 10.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Another resource-related story dominates the front page of the Ugandan Daily Monitor.

According to the Kampala-based paper, Uganda yesterday agreed with Kenya to develop the oil pipeline to Lamu Port, dropping an earlier option of using Mombasa or Dar es Salaam, which would have made the route longer and more expensive.

In a memorandum of understanding read by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Sam Kutesa, after the meeting between Presidents Museveni, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, it was further agreed that the pipeline would be extended to Rwanda.

According to the Daily Monitor, it was agreed to develop two oil pipelines, one of which currently exists and brings products from Mombsa to Eldoret. It will soon be extended to Kampala and Rwanda. That pipeline will be configured to have a reverse mechanism so that when the region is producing its own finished products, it can pump those products backwards.

The second pipeline will be constructed and will be for evacuation of crude oil when it starts flowing between Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya, ending up at the port of Lamu.

The Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister also said the three countries have agreed to mobilise resources to construct a railway line from Kenya through Uganda to Rwanda.

When asked whether he would go to the International Criminal Court for trial, President Kenyatta said he was not in Kampala to discuss the issue.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni also refused to comment on the visit of US President Barack Obama to Africa. “Obama was not part of our programme,” he said.

And, sadly but not surprisingly, Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye is back in the news.

According to the Daily Monitor, the government yesterday said opposition leader Kizza Besigye’s activities around the city will remain restricted because allowing the politician free access to town could help him bring down a “legitimately elected government through chaos.”

A government spokesperson made the remarks after Dr Besigye was, for a second day running, prevented from getting into town by the police. The Force never provided details of what it claimed was intelligence information, pointing instead to planned mischief by the politician, which reportedly informed their decision.

Yesterday afternoon, Dr Besigye was first placed under preventive arrest at his home, despite last year’s ruling by Kasangati Grade One Magistrate Jessica Chemery that it was unlawful for police to detain him in a place not gazetted as a detention centre.

Police later picked him from an access road that leads up to his Kasangati home, bundled him into a waiting van and drove him to Kira Police Station. By press time, no charges had been pressed against him.