African press review 5 June 2018

President Kenyatta sacks a thousand civil servants but has he slayed Kenya's corruption dragon?

We begin in Kenya where the papers are reacting to President Uhuru Kenyatta's decision to suspend 1,000 senior Government officials over corruption.

Standard reports that the group sent home on Monday includes procurement and accounts chiefs across the government as President Uhuru Kenyatta escalated the staff purge to tackle corruption in public service.

According to the newspaper, the drastic action followed his declaration on Madaraka Day that the vetting process for top officials would include lie detector tests as well as prosecutions already underway to cleanse his administration of corruption.

Meanwhile, Daily Nation says as the 349 lawmakers troop to the chambers on Tuesday afternoon after a month-long recess, questions abound on their role in fighting corruption. A majority of the lawmakers have expressed hope that the ongoing crackdown of corruption, coupled with the political goodwill, will bear fruit.

One lawmaker tells the paper that President Uhuru Kenyatta can only end corruption if he gets help from the public. In Kenya, he explained, the corrupt are the mighty and wealthy who can easily bribe their way out when a poorly paid officer is sent to arrest them.

Another who also spoke to the Nation warned that it was going to be tough as some countries have mafias but in Kenya, the mafia have the country".

The extravagant lifestyle of Swazi King Swati the third is still causing a buzz in South Africa, after he celebrated his 50th birthday last month, wearing a diamond encrusted watch worth an incredible 1.3 million euros and a suit dripping with diamonds.

Mail and Guardian which urges the Kingdom's leaders to stop eating all the grass reports that during the celebrations, King Swati's private jets flew over in a show of opulence never seen before.

As the newspaper observes, as if what we are seeing with our king and his many wives is not enough, the Prime Minister, Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, is about to get a gift from government with the construction of a multi-million emalangeni mansion. (Emalangeni being the currency used in Swaziland.)

Mail and Guardian argues that in the tiny country where freedom of expression is frowned upon, Africans elsewhere need to stand up for the Swazis, whose economy has gone to the dogs and whose leaders are so used to taking from their people that they can’t extricate themselves from this situation.

Meanwhile, the South African Times makes a splash out of Ivorian superstar Yaya Touré's charge that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has a problem with Africans players.

According to the newspaper, the accusations are contained in an interview to be published this Tuesday by France Football magazine.

Yaya Toure is quoted by the Times as saying that he was not the first to talk of these differences in treatment which he said trailed the Spaniard even during his time as Barcelona coach.

The 35-year-old Ivorian who played just 17 matches this season for City, while the team romped to the Premier League title, said he never stopped wondering if his limited playing time “was not because of his colour.”

And Yaya Touré reportedly concludes the interview by slamming Guardiola of being “a manipulator who did everything to ruin my last season” and who reportedly prevented him from enjoying the sort of farewell fanfare received by Andres Iniesta at Barcelona and Gianluigi Buffon at Juventus.