African press review 23 July 2015

Muhammadu Buhari says he's going to get Nigeria's stolen oil billions back. The South African opposition were not impressed by what they saw during yesterday's visit to Jacob Zuma's home in Nkandla. And if you want to consult Barack Obama's highly secret flight details to Kenya, just check out Facebook.

The main story in this morning's Nigerian Guardian concerns a presidential promise to recover stolen oil money.

According to the report, Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed evidence of massive looting of Nigeria’s crude oil by some government office holders.

They include former ministers whose names are being compiled by the relevant agencies for possible prosecution.

An estimated 150 billion dollars of Nigerian oil money is believed to be stashed away in various private bank accounts outside the country.

The president says some former government ministers were selling about one million barrels of stolen oil per day. Oil is currently selling on the world market at 56 dollars a barrel but was worth twice that 18 months ago.

In South Africa BusinessDay reports that yesterday's inspection of President Jacob Zuma’s controversial Nkandla homestead by a parliamentary committee reinforced the view that the South African leader had unduly benefited from the upgrades and that taxpayers’ money had been wasted, at least according to opposition parties represented on the committee.

Yesterday's visit by the parliamentary committee investigating the upgrades to Zuma’s private residence was embroiled in controversy when the media and some members of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) were allowed only limited access to the homestead.

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said it was clear that the upgrades far exceeded the requirement to secure Zuma’s private home.

"Everything we have seen today reinforces our stance that President Zuma clearly unduly benefited as the public protector found," Maimane told journalists.

He went on to say that the report by the South African police minister, which exonerated the president, must be rejected as irrational.

According to the main story in regional paper The East African, Kenya is hoping that the United States will offer additional help in the fight against Somalia-based Islamist insurgents Al-Shebab while fostering investments in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

This emerged in a televised address by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as the nation prepares for this weekend's visit by Barack Obama.

In Kenya itself The Daily Nation gives front-page prominence to the news that the White House in Washington has downplayed media concerns over President Barack Obama’s security in Kenya after an apparent security breach by a Kenya Airways official.

The official is reported to have sent an email to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Wilson Airport staff, aircraft operators and even flight schools detailing Air Force One’s exact 50-minute landing and departure schedules for the weekend. The document was subsequently posted on Facebook.

For security reasons, the White House does not publicly release details of the flight plans.

The Daily Nation observes that a report on the Atlanta-based CNN television chanel describes Kenya as "one of the most dangerous countries in the world". A contributor to the same programme, a former member of Obama's security detail, said Kenya is more dangerous that Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over at The Standard, the main story confirms that Kenyan authorities say security arrangements for the two-day visit of the US president are complete.

The US navy is on standby in the Indian Ocean, says The Standard, though they probably don't mean the entire US navy. The Kenya Defence Forces and the National Police Service are in charge of the border with Somalia and internal security respectively. The airspace above Kenya and Somalia is being heavily monitored by the US military, using drones and spyplanes.

The Cairo-based Egypt Independent reports that a court yesterday sentenced Ahmed Nazif, a prime minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, to five years in jail on graft charges following a retrial.

Nazif had previously been sentenced to three years on the same charges before lodging the appeal that led to his retrial.

And the Egypt Independent also reports that the Giza Criminal Court decided on Wednesday to postpone the trial of deposed President Mohamed Morsi and other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in the case which accuses the defendants of collaborating with Qatar until 2 August, due to Morsi's deteriorating health condition.