GERMANY: Merkel 'taking Europe in wrong direction'

A suit filed by a publisher-cum lawyer seeking information on alleged multi-billion shillings contracts awarded to foreign companies by Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) was Thursday deferred to March 12. Nairobi Law Monthly (NLM) publisher Ahmednasir Abdullahi wants KenGen to be compelled to make public information relating to the geothermal well drilling contracts, some of which he claims were corruptly awarded.

NLM has termed the case as sensitive saying it involves documents and information that is considered top secret and held exclusively by KenGen and its MD Edward Njoroge. Abdullahi, in a sworn statement claims the documents touch on questionable contacts worth billions of shillings that he alleges the taxpayer has lost money.

The publisher will be seeking orders to compel KenGen to list, tabulate and make copies of all documents, emails, letters, memos, board minutes, board papers, tender minutes, legal opinions, log of study tours, reports money transfers, cheques and other payments among other documents between KenGen and Norwegian company Green Energy, Symba Power Energy or their subsidiaries and associates, Great Wall Drilling Company and Hindustan Turbo company and Maxx Watt ltd.

Rajoelina has colluded with some senior military, police and intelligence figures, and France (Vol 29 No 14 and No 15), to frustrate the SADC-sponsored process aimed at restoring a democratic government. In the latest example, Rajoelina and his allies last month prevented ousted President Marc Ravalomanana from returning to Madagascar. Ravalomanana's return is an explicit requirement of the roadmap document signed in September 2011.

However, tensions are growing between Rajoelina and his security allies on the one hand, and senior political figures in the transitional government he leads on the other. Transitional Prime Minister Omer Beriziky, in particular, has broken ranks with Rajoelina. Last week he told Ojaniaina Dina Andriamaholy, chief legal advisor of the High Transitional Authority (Rajoelina's temporary government) and vice president of the Administrative Court, that the SADC roadmap in its current form was unnecessarily generous to Rajoelina and gave him inordinate powers.

Andriamaholy, already sceptical of Rajoelina's regime, advised the prime minister to use the country's High Constitutional Court to counter Rajoelina's powers and actions, particularly with regard to strict implementation of the roadmap. In a recent decision, the court adopted the SADC roadmap as a Malagasy legal instrument, giving its provisions and timetables the power of Malagasy law. This paves the way for amnesty legislation to be passed, setting aside Ravalomanana's conviction in absentia by a criminal court that critics say was controlled by Rajoelina. The High Constitutional Court, by adopting the SADC roadmap as a legal instrument, effectively made Rajoelina's government subject to SADC authority, a point insiders say Andriamaholy made to the frustrated Beriziky.

Pressure regarding the roadmap is now mounting on Rajoelina from within his own camp. Insiders suggest high-level tension with the army and the judiciary over the slow implementation of the programme. Some senior security figures fear the return of Ravalomanana would have direct personal consequences for them, since they were directly involved in ousting the former president in a coup in 2009 and installing Rajoelina, a 34-year-old ex-Antananarivo DJ, as president of the country. These elements have pressured Rajoelina to resist the SADC reform process.

However, this has led to as yet private but growing calls on Rajoelina to step down as transitional president from some quarters of his inner circle. They argue he has failed to restore stability and normality to the troubled island state. ABOUT TIME! BUT THE SLIPPERY EEL IS STILL BATTING FOR PARIS

The paper considers that in sub-Saharan Africa a prominent cause of the tripling of deaths was antimalarial drug resistance (older anti-malarial treatments such as chloroquine are no longer effective). Although most malaria deaths are in very young children, the study found that “with few exceptions, the proportion of malaria deaths in adults is almost always more than 40 per cent”.

Satar and a second of the Cardoso assassins, Vicente Ramaya, were transferred on Monday from the Maputo top security prison to the cells of the Maputo City Police Command. Although Samo Goncalves, the Director of Penal Control in the Ministry of Justice, denied that the transfers had anything to do with the kidnapping, “Savana”’s sources insist that they do. After three weeks of investigations into the kidnappings, the police requested the intervention of the State Security and Intelligence Service (SISE). It was SISE which identified Satar and Ramaya as the main suspects.

Prior to his arrest in 2001 for the Cardoso murder, Satar had run an illegal loan sharking operation from the premises of Unicambios, the now defunct foreign exchange bureau owned by his brother, Ayob. Asian businessmen who, for whatever reason, could not borrow money from the normal sources of funding turned to Satar – who was always willing to lend, but at extortionate interest rates. During the Cardoso murder trial, Satar told the court that he made his living out of short term loans and charging “commissions” on them. He freely admitted that he had no authorisation for this and paid no taxes. He was, in short, an unregistered, illegal money-lender – a loan shark. It is now suspected that the businessman kidnapped in recent months owed Satar money. They had taken out loans before his arrest and never repaid them.

Satar and Ramaya could continue to run criminal operations from their cells in the top security prison because they were always in mobile phone contact with the outside world. Not only were phones regularly smuggled into the jail, but Satar also had access to computers. He set up his own page on Facebook, and for a period ran a blog (www.ninisatar.blogspot.com) – this has not been updated since August 2009.

According to “Savana”, SISE suspected that Satar and Ramaya were using their illicit cell phones to coordinate activities such as the kidnappings. The sudden transfer to the police command is intended to cut off their channels of communication with the outside world. “Savana” notes that Satar is also believed to have connections with Remix Property – a company that burst upon the Maputo business scene in late 2010, and seems mysteriously wealthy. It has interests in real estate, construction, car hire, and the sale of electrical goods. (Source: AIM)

Niger transition shows way for North Africa With Saturday's second-round presidential elections, Niger ends a model one-year all-inclusive democratic transition process. The process could be an example for the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

NIGERIA: Shell says 140,000bpd oil export from Nigeria threatened by theft - The Nigerian subsidiary of oil giant Shell Monday raised an alarm over the effects of continued crude oil theft along one of its major export pipelines, saying the practice could affect the production and export of 140,000 barrels per day from the company and third party production.

Nigerians flee to Cameroon - Nigerians have fled in droves to neighbouring Cameroon to escape violence claimed by the Islamist Boko Haram group and revenge attacks by Christians.

Rwanda: South African Airways Resumes Flights On Kigali The South African Airways (SAA) has added Rwanda to its 500 destinations across the world by reentering the Kigali - Johannesburg route. An Airbus A319 aircraft with a capacity of carrying 120 passengers; 25 in business class and 95 in economy class will operate three days a week on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Johannesburg to Kigali, before departing for Bujumbura. The return flights will operate from Bujumbura to Kigali and onwards to Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport.

Senegal: Day of Reckoning - It's the Economy Stupid! - The Senegalese people are extremely disillusioned. In 2000, they enthusiastically went to the polls to elect Abdoulaye Wade as their president. Wade had campaigned as an agent of change, but change never came to Senegal throughout his decade in power. Now the only change he wants to make is to the constitution, so that he can retain his hold on power.

Wade turned out to be almost a caricature of the dozy African potentate for whom power, nepotism, and embezzlement become indistinguishable. So deeply has he identified his and his family's interests with the state that he appointed his son, Karim Wade, to head four different ministries - international cooperation, air travel, infrastructure, and energy - simultaneously. To make young Wade his successor, the 86-year-old president has resorted to every trick in the book. He staged a photo opportunity for his designated-heir with Barack Obama during the G-8 meeting in Deauville in 2011, and followed that up with a trip to Benghazi - his flight escorted by French Mirage fighters - to lambast Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi. In doing so, Wade broke ranks with the rest of the African Union, naively expecting to gain French and Western support for his bid to retain power. Wade's shortcomings have also hurt Senegal's economy. The 1.16 per cent annual growth of the agricultural (which employs sixty per cent of the country's people) was quite insufficient to provide for a population growing 2.5 per cent annually.

The companies are being investigated for tender fraud and corruption by the SA Revenue Service, public protector Thuli Madonsela and the elite investigating unit, the Hawks. The national government stepped in and placed five departments in Limpopo under administration in January after tender fraud brought the province to the brink of collapse. - SAPA

The only way South Africa or anyone other country in Africa will operate on the Chinese model is when the Chinese have control. It needs to be remembered that everyone in China is held accountable even down to the number of children they may have. This is the one Chinese model that Africa would do well to emulate. The Chinese have no Unions. The Chinese tolerate no demonstrations. You work your long days and long weeks quietly and accept what they pay you with no recourse to striking. The Chinese have the death sentence and they use it thousands of time each year. They execute people in China for the same crimes that South Africans would get a pat on the wrist for. Under their system many government officials in South Africa would probably have been not available to listen to the ‘State of the Nation’ address.

One man was killed during the SPLM-N attack - his body was earlier handed over to the Chinese embassy in Khartoum. The SPLM-N - which used to fight alongside the rulers of now independent South Sudan - has been battling government forces in South Kordofan for more than six months. Correspondents say Beijing is a key supporter of the Khartoum government but the abduction - the third involving Chinese nationals since 2004 - has strained relations. China buys much of the oil produced in both Sudan and South Sudan and is a major supplier of weapons to Khartoum. South Sudan's new leaders deny Khartoum's accusations that they are backing the SPLM-N.