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  • Kenya police use teargas, shoot in air during opposition march

    Nairobi - Kenyan police fired teargas and shots in the air on Monday as hundreds of demonstrators marched through the capital Nairobi to protest against proposed legal changes that would make it harder for the Supreme Court to annul an election.

    Reuters television footage showed a sport utility vehicle ploughing into some of the protesters, severely injuring three, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible and the police made no immediate comment on the incident.

    Kenya is due on October 26 to repeat a presidential election after the Supreme Court nullified an August 8 vote due to procedural irregularities. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won the August election, will face opposition leader Raila Odinga.

    Uncertainty over the coming election has created turmoil in the East African nation, which is a regional trade hub and staunch Western ally.

     

    As the demonstrators marched towards the election board in Nairobi, a Reuters journalist saw men in plain clothes near security forces fire shots in the air. Police on horseback set up blockades to prevent protesters from accessing some roads.

    Police also used teargas in the western city of Kisumu, Odinga's stronghold, to disperse protesters, though another demonstration in the coastal city of Mombasa passed peacefully.

    Odinga's opposition alliance is threatening to boycott the October vote unless the electoral board changes some personnel - a stance he declined on Monday to clarify, in comments that suggested he was keeping his options open for now.

    "This is a democratic society we live in. If I choose not to participate in the pre-rigged election process, it is my democratic right. No court can order me to do so," Odinga said in comments broadcast on Kenyan TV stations, without elaborating further.

     

    "DECLARING WAR"

    The protesters want to warn ruling party lawmakers not to pass an amendment to the election law that would limit the circumstances in which the Supreme Court could void an election on procedural grounds, opposition lawmaker James Orengo said.

    "If parliament passes the law tomorrow, it will be like declaring war on the Kenyan people," he said.

    Justin Muturi, speaker of the National Assembly, said the amendment could be debated when parliament reconvenes on Tuesday if lawmakers were keen to push it forward.

    He said the key part of the proposed law stipulates that if a candidate boycotts an election whose date has already been set, the remaining candidate would win the contest without formal polls being held.

    The government is keen to avoid a constitutional crisis if Odinga pulls out at the last minute, frustrating the court's order to hold elections within 60 days, Muturi said.

    "We are trying to prevent a crisis should there be no elections," he told Reuters by phone.

    The government-backed Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said on Monday in a report that at least 37 people had been killed in a police crackdown on protests that immediately followed the August vote - the highest death toll given so far.

    The report attributed some deaths to "police using live bullets and a few from police bludgeoning using clubs". It named a 6-month-old baby girl, a 7-year-old boy, and an 8-year-old girl as being among the victims.

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  • South Africa, Zimbabwe share a world of realpolitik

    If we were to go with the popular, media-driven sentiments and narratives, South Africa would not be relating well with Zimbabwe.

    South Africa could pretty well have aided a “regime change” in Harare that would have seen the back of Zimbabwe’s veteran leader, President Robert Mugabe.

    It is something Western countries, chiefly Britain and America, have demanded of South Africa. Zimbabwe’s own opposition often looks up to their more powerful and richer cousins.

    However, South Africa has resisted these pressures, something that confounds watchers.

    This week, President Jacob Zuma rolled out the red carpet for President Mugabe for bilateral talks under the framework of the Bi-National Commission.

    Zuma attended the same fixture in Harare last year and, in the latest recent event, the two countries signed five cooperation agreements in several areas, from trade to migration. Mugabe’s visit came under a cloud, due to the case in which his wife, Grace, allegedly assaulted a model, leading to a diplomatic incident.

    This attracted frenzied reaction, but South Africa invoked diplomatic immunity to protect the Zimbabwean First Lady.

    The incident was being flagged by the media ahead of Mugabe’s visit this week, but it was to miss the point completely. Perhaps more than many of us care to admit, South Africa actually needs Zimbabwe.

    Welcome to the world of realpolitik. Zimbabwe is one of South Africa’s top five trading partners and goods up to the value of US$5 billion exchange hands.

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  • Bob Corker: Trump puts US on course for 'World War Three'

    US President Donald Trump could put the US "on the path to World War Three", the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has warned.

    Senator Bob Corker said Mr Trump was treating the presidency like "a reality show".

    The retiring Tennessee lawmaker also said White House staff struggle to "contain" Mr Trump.

    Mr Corker's comments are a remarkable attack on a sitting president from a member of his own party.

    Mr Corker was considered for the job of secretary of state by Mr Trump last year but they have since fallen out.

    The senator told the New York Times in a telephone interview on Sunday he was concerned about the president's conduct.

    "I don't think he appreciates that when the president of the United States speaks and says the things that he does, the impact that it has around the world, especially in the region that he's addressing," he said.

    Image copyrightEPAImage captionMr Trump said he refused to endorse Mr Corker for re-election

    Mr Corker suggested the president - who has repeatedly baited nuclear-armed North Korea - could put the US on course for "World War Three".

    "I don't know why the president tweets out things that are not true," he added.

    "You know he does it, everyone knows he does it, but he does."

    "I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it's a situation of trying to contain him," Mr Corker told the newspaper.

    The ill-tempered exchange began on Sunday morning, when Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Corker had begged the president to endorse him for re-election.

    Mr Trump said he refused. He also accused Mr Corker of being "largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal".

    Mr Corker, who denied the president's account, responded: "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center.

    "Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

    Mr Trump is this week expected to de-certify the Obama administration's 2015 agreement to curb Iran's development of nuclear weapons, a deal he has repeatedly condemned.

    Last month Mr Corker - who has said the Iran deal should not be torn up - announced he would not seek re-election at next year's mid-term elections.

    Mr Corker and Mr Trump previously clashed in August when the senator criticised the president's response to clashes that month between white supremacists and anti-fascist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia.

    Mr Trump's attack followed Mr Corker's expression of support last week for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is widely seen as having been sidelined by the president.

    Mr Corker said America's top diplomat was "in an incredibly frustrating place", where he "ends up not being supported in the way that I hope a secretary of state would be supported".

    On Wednesday Mr Tillerson denied rumours that he was about to resign, amid reports he had referred to the president as a moron.

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  • Zimbabwe reporter held over 'Grace Mugabe underwear' story

    Zimbabwe reporter held over 'Grace Mugabe underwear' story

    A Zimbabwean journalist has been detained over a story alleging that used underwear had been distributed to ruling Zanu-PF supporters on First Lady Grace Mugabe's behalf, his lawyers say.

    NewsDay reporter Kenneth Nyangani was likely to face "criminal defamation" charges, the lawyers added.

    Zanu-PF MP Esau Mupfumi distributed the underwear, and said Mrs Mugabe had donated it, the newspaper reported.

    There has been no official comment on Mr Nyangani's arrest.

    It was unclear clear whether the complainant was the MP or the first lady, NewsDay reported.

    Police in the eastern city of Mutare detained Mr Nyangani on Monday evening for "allegedly writing and publishing a story over the donation of some used undergarments" by President Robert Mugabe's wife, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said in a statement.

    The privately-owned newspaper had earlier reported that Mr Mupfumi had handed out clothes at the weekend to Zanu-PF supporters in the Mutare area.

    "I met the First Lady Grace Mugabe and I was given these clothes so that I can give you. I have briefs for you and I am told that most of your briefs are not in good shape, please come and collect your allocations today," Mr Mupfumi was quoted as saying.

    "We have night dresses, sandals and clothes, come and take, this is from your First Lady Grace Mugabe," he added.

    Worsening economic conditions in Zimbabwe are forcing many people to buy second-hand clothing, the AFP news agency reports.

    It says such items include used underwear from Western countries which is chiefly imported from Mozambique.

    Mrs Mugabe, the president's second wife, attracted widespread media attention in August when she was accused of attacking a model at a hotel in South Africa where her sons were staying.

    She has denied any wrongdoing.

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  • New dawn at FIFA

    New dawn at FIFA

    Emergence of a new leader at the summit of world football raises posers on Africa’s fortunes, reports Oladipo Okubanjo

    TWO MONTHS after emerging as new president of FIFA, world football’s govern­ing body, Gianni Infantino is fast settling down to business. But, given the corruption crisis that engulfed the organisation last year, the Switzerland-born Italian certainly has his work cut out.

    The 46-year-old former general secretary of UEFA, the union of European football associations now has the responsibility of repositioning the organisation so that it will once again command the respect of stake­holders.

    Conscious of the fact that under the lead­ership of the now disgraced Sepp Blatter, FIFA was transformed from a near beggarly enterprise to a money-making behemoth that became synonymous with bribery and corruption, FIFPro, the International Federation of Professional Footballers, rep­resenting 65,000 players, has recently set out what they believe are vital steps if Infantino is to succeed as president.

    Money matters

    FIFPro says FIFA must prove it has the capacity to drive the reform of a democratic and politically complex global body, and treat the game above all as a sport.

    According to article 69, paragraph 2 of the FIFA statutes, its revenue and expendi­ture “shall be managed so that they balance out over the financial period”.

    Approximately 90 per cent of FIFA’s revenue is generated through the sale of tel­evision, marketing, hospitality and licensing rights for the FIFA World Cup. The revenue from the commercialisation of these rights and sufficient equity is of crucial importance to it because, in addition to funding its range of development pro­grammes and covering general running costs, it must also finance the organisation of various international tournaments, including, most notably, the fifa World Cup.

    Almost 70 per cent of expenditure flows back into football development in the form of financial support, development pro­grammes and funding competitions.

    And amid revelations in the corruption scandal, which suggest part of the profit made by FIFA might have been misappro­priated, FIFPro says: “A clean break from the past is essential for FIFAto climb out of the toxic pit, which continues to produce serious accusations of corrupt behaviour on almost a daily basis. At the same time, there is no doubt the present mayhem has left FIFA morally bankrupt.”

    The politics

    In the build-up to the February 26 FIFA presidential election in Zurich, Infantino was seen as the standard bearer for European interests following the withdrawal of Michel Platini, the UEFA president, who was slapped with a six-year ban from football for collecting CHF2m from Blatter and FIFA without a written contract.

    But Infantino had a big hurdle to surmount in Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the Asian football confederation president tipped by pundits as the frontrun- ner, with the Confederation of African Football, CAF, and the Asian confederation - two of the largest confederations that make up fifa - pledging their votes for him.

    Infantino, in a bid to break Sheikh Salman’s supposed stranglehold on CAF, reportedly embarked on a diplomatic shuttle to Africa, where he was said to have prom­ised $5m in development grants to each federation, including $lm as travel expens­es, “if required”, should they support him in his presidential bid.

    Infantino also flew to South Africa for short-notice talks with Tokyo Sexwale, the only African among the five candidates con­testing the FIFA presidency. Though Infantino denied he was there for a deal, saying, “I have nothing to hide”, Sexwale told reporters: “I’m open to deals ... it’s a secretive process.”

    He added: “It’s like the Vatican. You never know what will come out.”

    This apparently accounted for why Sexwale dramatically withdrew his candi­dacy on the day of the election. The first balloting did not produce a clear winner, with Infantino finishing ahead of Sheikh Salman 115 to 88 in the second vote.

    Future for Africa

    However, despite the late backing that Africa gave to Infantino, there are reports that the victory of the trained lawyer sent many football chiefs on the continent into a panic mode. There remain palpable fears that Africa may cease to enjoy the kind of patronage it enjoyed from FIFA under Blatter’s leadership.

    Blatter is credited with helping to reduce the ‘Eurocentric’ nature of FIFA. First of all, the number of African teams at the World Cup increased from two to five after his election as FIFA president in 1998. As a result of this, minnows like Senegal, Togo and Angola have been able to feature in the tournament over the years.

    Another benefit the African continent and developing countries as a whole gained during Blatter’s time was the FIFA goal project, a programme aimed at supporting the growth of member associations by pro­viding them with the resources to jumpstart their development by implementing key football projects.

    Since its inception, numerous football associations have been provided with state- of-the-art headquarters. There has also been development of artificial pitches, not for­getting the various seminars and football clinics which FIFA organised under Blatter to educate people about the game.

    This has helped many countries with limited resources from their central govern­ment for football to, at least, catch up with the more developed countries.

    In addition, since the inception of the FIFA World Cup, the hosting rights were seen as the exclusive preserve of Europe and the Americas, but Blatter helped to change all that and in 2010 Africa got to host its first FIFA World Cup, and the tournament took place very successfully in South Africa.

    This essentially left the various football associations in Africa in Blatter’s debt, and they appeared to show some appreciation in 2002 when many of them gave their votes to him in that year’s FIFA elections, which was also contested by Issa Hayatou, the CAF president.

    Speaking on the future of Africa under Infantino’s presidency, John Fashanu, a former England international who is now a football ambassador for Nigeria, said in an interview with NewsAfrica that although the continent enjoyed a great deal of patronage from FIFA under Blatter, there is no reason why this should change under Infantino.

    “Africa had it so good obviously,” said Fashanu. ‘He [Blatter] was looking after Africa. But it’s a new dawn and we don’t know which way Infantino will go; though I know he’s not the type that gives out bribes, you’d have to earn it the right way.

    “However, for the fact that Africa has been exposed as a powerful continent, nobody can decrease the level Africa has attained. He [Infantino] would have to continue with Blatter’s legacy and bring out many new initiatives.’

    To Paul Bassey, a veteran Nigerian jour­nalist who serves on different committees of CAF and FIFA, “any FIFA president that does not favour Africa is digging his own grave”.

    Infantino, he said, recognises the place of Africa as an emerging power in world foot­ball. “The patronage is likely to continue.

    Infantino knows he can’t ignore Africa; he’s not a novice in world football, he knows the politics because he’s been around for quite some time up until he became the UEFA general secretary. ’

    Simataa Simataa, a former Zambia FA chief, told the BBC, “A lot of things have been done using FIFA money and in Africa the perception is that it’s Sepp Blatter’s money. But this should be done anyway, whether Mr Blatter is there or not.” Infantino’s election, according to Danny Jordaan, head of the South Africa FA, has made FIFA a better organisation. “The reporting lines are clear, the governance of FIFA is strengthened, and transparency has been strengthened,” he said.

    “So on the plus side, he comes into a new environment for organising, managing and controlling world football but he’s a person that has, I think, significant experience to steer FIFA into calmer waters.’

    Infantino’s election followed the approval of a series of reforms aimed at improving FIFA’s governance and preventing another all-powerful ruler as president.

    Unlike his long serving predecessor, Infantino will be limited to three, four-year terms and the office will be more ambassa­dorial.

    In addition, a compliance officer will work closely with FIFA’s chief executive and each confederation will have a female represen­tative on FIFA’s ruling council.

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