African press review 01 October 2014

Kenya’s GDP leaps, thanks to a change in bookkeeping practices. The ANC may let Zuma off repaying his home-improvement debts. Ebola hits Liberia’s post-war economy. Muslim Brothers call for human rights groups’ support against Egypt’s government. Uganda has a new prime minister.

Kenya’s gross domestic product grew miraculously yesterday by 25 per cent after the authorities changed the base calculation year to 2009 from 2001, sending the east African nation into the continent’s top 10 economies.

The improved economic output figures put Kenya in ninth place in Africa’s GDP rankings, up from 12th.

The rebasing exercise means debt levels fall as a proportion of GDP, a closely watched ratio, and could give the Nairobi government some leeway for more borrowing to help finance its plans to build new transport links and repair creaking infrastructure.

But revising the estimated size of GDP does not change Kenya’s ability to repay additional loans nor does it mean the government has more income to spend on development.

South African financial paper BusinessDay reports that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) yesterday resumed work in the special ad-hoc committee on the 17 million euros of state money spent on President Jacob Zuma’s private home in KwaZulu Natal. BusinessDay says the ruling party appears to be poised to absolve the president of any obligation to repay the money.

Should the ANC choose this route, suggests BusinessDay, it could bring the parliamentary committee into conflict with the constitution, which enjoins all organs of state to protect and promote the independence of the public protector.

The ANC is the only political group on the committee investigating the case, after the combined opposition withdrew last Friday.

The South African ombudsman or public protector has already ruled that Zuma improperly benefited from the upgrades and should repay some of the money..

Liberia’s Ebola crisis is battering the economy of a nation that has spent the past decade recovering from 14 years of civil war, its minister of commerce said yesterday.

"Our entire development agenda is at risk," said Axel Addy, who was in Geneva for a UN meeting.

The worst-ever outbreak of Ebola has killed more than 3,000 people in west Africa.

The latest UN data released Saturday said 1,830 people have died from the virus in Liberia so far and 3,458 Liberians have been infected.

Liberia has slashed its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.5 per cent from 5.9 per cent, as international mining groups have suspended operations and farmers cannot get their crops to market.

Government revenues, already dented by the slowdown, are now under massive strain from the cost of fighting the outbreak.

The front page of the Cairo-based Egypt Independent reports that the Muslim Brotherhood has intensified efforts to prosecute officials of the current Egyptian regime before international courts.

The Muslim Brotherhood has asked international human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, to support legal action against the regime for the violence during the 2013 dispersal of protesters at the Cairo squares of Rabaa and al-Nahda, in which several hundred people lost their lives.

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Sunday that he will form a fact-finding committee to conduct an international investigation into the dispersal if the Egyptian committee fails to investigate the main suspects.

The Monitor in Uganda welcomes that country's new prime minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, approved yesterday following a parliamentary vote.

Rugunda replaces Amama Mbabazi, sacked three weeks ago in a reshuffle which saw only the prime minister shuffling.

Rugunda is a veteran of the war against Idi Amin and has promised to tackle graft in public office.

Four opposition MPs opposed the motion to name Rugunda prime minister, four others abstained while 217 MPs supported his appointment.

The Monitor also reports that the World Bank has urged other multilateral development banks to suspend dealing with the China International Water and Electric Corporation, the company that has been chosen to build Uganda’s Isimba Hydro Power Project.

The World Bank said the Chinese consortium had in the past engaged in “sanctionable practices” connected with a hydropower project in Africa.

The China International Water and Electric Corporation in 2010 lost the contract to build the 1.5-billion-euro Karuma project after Uganda’s Inspectorate of Government investigated the procurement and found that the Chinese company had falsified information about its ability to construct large hydropower projects.

The head of communications at the energy ministry says the World Bank’s criticism will not affect the construction of Isimba.