Zambia opposition leader let off the hook
The Zambia’s anti-fraud investigators will not prosecute the main opposition leader accused of money laundering. The Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) confirmed Wednesday 8 that Mr Michael Sata, main challenger of President Rupiah Banda in this year’s elections, is alleged to have illegally transacted $100,000 at a commercial bank to purchase vehicles for a Catholic priest to de-campaign the Banda administration. The DEC, a government agency responsible for fighting drug trafficking and money laundering, said it had decided not to prosecute Mr Sata following “extensive consultations” with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).“The Drug Enforcement Commission will not prosecute the matter, but hand it over to the Zambia Revenue Authority and the Bank of Zambia for consideration and possible prosecution,” said John Nyawali, DEC spokesperson, in a media statement.: In December last year, DEC seized a Chevrolet and Isuzu double cab, both valued at $100,000, belonging to Mr Sata as part of the investigations concerning the alleged illegal transaction. Mr Sata, who lost by about 35,000 votes to President Banda in 2008 elections, had said the investigations against him were “trumped up charges” to demobilise his campaigns. Investigations started in November 2010 after a former official in Mr Sata’s Patriotic Front (PF) party, who quit and joined President Banda’s camp, alleged the opposition leader had dubiously transacted $100,000 to purchase cars for a Catholic priest to carry out anti-government campaigns
Central African Republic electoral commission members detained
Three members of Central African Republic's independent electoral commission are in police custody linked to vote counting problems in the south. The three, who include the head of the commission's vote counting operations, Rodrigue Maite, and two local officials, were placed in custody after some legislative votes failed to reach counting stations in the southern Boganda region, the body's spokesman Rigobert Vondo said, Maite said on telephone while he was in custody the voting records had been transmitted to a counting station headed by an "expatriate expert." On Monday, the electoral commission announced provisional results from last month's legislative elections with the exception of Boganda and Birao in the north. The results which put the party of President Francois Bozize in the lead were denounced as a "masquerade" by opposition parties. With just over 66 percent of the vote according to official results, Bozize's KnK party appears on course to win an absolute majority in the National Assembly during the second round scheduled for March 20.
Kenyan PM backs Rwanda to lead bloc
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Thursday that he was not opposed to the appointment of a Rwandan as the secretary-general of the East African Community. Mr Raila said the nationality of the bloc’s next chief executive should not generate controversy in the region comprising Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi “There should be no tug of war on this issue really, as the title states; the individual serves all member countries and not only his country. How will Kenya benefit, for example, if the next secretary-general is from Kenya?” he said, while speaking in Kigali, Rwanda, where he attended the African Capacity Building Foundation meeting. It was a paradox, said the PM that Africa had an abundance of resources yet it was the poorest continent.”
Zimbabwe: Police blame Tsvangirai party for Harare chaos
The Zimbabwe police are blaming Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party for the violence that gripped the capital Harare Monday. The violence, marked by looting of shops owned by foreigners allegedly committed by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, had largely been blamed on the long serving ruler’s Zanu-PF party. Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had blamed President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF for the disturbances, which it says have displaced hundreds of its supporters in Harare’s poor townships. The MDC accused the police of complicity in the violence and say the force only arrested the victims and gave the Zanu-PF supporters protection during the demonstrations.
Uganda: Museveni guards assault Journalist
The soldiers belonging to Uganda's Army’s Special Forces Group (SFG) Wednesday assaulted a local Daily Monitor journalist in Sembabule District as he attempted to take pictures of them stopping Lwemiyaga County MP Theodore Sekikubo from erecting a campaign poster. Mr Issa Aliga, based in Masaka, said he had just arrived in Lwemiyaga, where President Museveni was to address a rally later in the day when the soldiers form the core of the presidential guard, turned on him and confiscated his camera. Mr Aliga said that “I saw SFG blocking Mr Ssekikubo and his supporters from putting up his campaign poster bearing his image and that of President Museveni,” “But as I was taking the pictures of the MP and his supporters being chased away, the SFG beat and detained me for at least 10 minutes, confiscated my camera on claims that I did not ask for permission, yet I was accredited.”