African press review 9 October 2013

A lot of government money has gone missing in Kenya. There are questions about the fallout from Kenya's role in Somalia. Museveni is likely to run into Besigye. And there's economic optimism about Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

According to this morning's Nairobi-based Standard newspaper, the whereabouts of over Sh338 billion (that's getting on for three billion euros) of total government expenditure for the year 2011/2012 remain uncertain.

Only six per cent of the ten billion euros that the government spent was fully accounted for, according to a report released by the auditor general on Tuesday.

The report indicates that almost half of government spending lacked adequate supporting documents, highlighting the loopholes that lead to the misuse of public funds.

The auditor general said about a third of the 252 financial statements of institutions he audited were either deliberately misstated or revealed fraudulent expenditure.

The same paper reports that Kenyan journalist Walter Barasa has asked the High Court to block his arrest and surrender to the International Criminal Court over alleged witness bribery in the case involving Deputy President William Ruto.

Barasa said it was not proper for the government to commence proceedings under the International Crimes Act before furnishing him with the evidence upon which the ICC issued his warrant of arrest.

In his application Barasa argues that the procedure set out in the Act, in respect of Arrest and Surrender of Persons to the ICC, was fundamentally flawed and invalid under Kenya’s Constitution.

The ICC accuses Barasa of offering cash to three witnesses against Ruto in an effort to have them withdraw their testimony.

Kenya's role in Somalia is the main story in this morning's Daily Nation.

A US government official and two analysts raised questions on Tuesday about Kenya's activities in Somalia in comments to the US Senate.

Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development, told the senators that increasing security efforts by the Kenya Defence Forces may have aid access implications in the Somali port city of Kismayo and reignite tensions in the local community.

Somalis express scepticism in regard to Kenya's claim that it wants to remove its troops from Kismayo, added E J Hogendoorn, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. He pointed to a United Nations allegation that Kenyan military officers earn large amounts of money from trade, including illegal charcoal, passing through Kismayo.

Most Somalis believe Kenya wants to control southern Somalia because it has large oil and natural gas deposits, Hogendoorn told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Abdi Aynte, director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, said the US has a moral obligation to exert pressure on Kenya and Ethiopia to cease interfering in Somalia's internal politics.

Under questioning from Senator John McCain, a Pentagon official declined to discuss the recent US raid on an al-Shebab stronghold in Barawe, a town south of Mogadishu. The official told the Republican former presidential candidate it would be inappropriate to discuss military operations in an open forum.

In Uganda, according to the main story in the Daily Monitor, President Yoweri Museveni and his political arch-rival, Kizza Besigye are likely to meet later today in Rukungiri.

The Kampala-based daily says the president and his former doctor will both attend today's national independence celebrations in Rukungiri, just one day after the head of state launched another scathing attack on his rival.

Speaking in Kampala yesterday, Museveni attacked Besigye and Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago, saying they had launched protests in the capital to promote chaos and turn the situation in the country into an Egypt-style civil war.

Besigye maintained his criticism of the National Rainbow Movement government, presided over by Museveni, saying it has not offered Ugandans much to celebrate. He also called on his supporters to convene at the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party offices before marching with him to Rukungiri Stadium, the venue of the celebrations.

Regional newspaper the East African reports that Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are expecting economic activity to pick up in the third quarter, projecting economic growth to be in excess of 5.5 per cent for the full year.

A separate story in the same paper reports that the same three countries are considering building a superhighway from Mombasa to Kigali. Construction is scheduled to start in 2016.