That's all from the BBC Africa Live page today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website. 

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.     

And we leave you with this picture of a young skater at the annual Skate-Aid Highest Ollie contest at the Kitintale Skate Park, in Uganda's capital Kampala.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed a controversial bill that allows the use of manual systems as a back-up to electronic voting in the upcoming general elections in August. 

Opposition lawmakers have been against the manual system, accusing the government of planning to use it to rig the election. 

A statement from Mr Kenyatta's spokesman says that the manual system will be complementary and will be used if the electronic system fails. 

It says that the system must be “simple, accurate, verifiable, secure, accountable and transparent to ensure that the commission complies with the provisions of the constitution”.

Government-allied MPs outvoted the opposition in both the lower and upper houses of parliament to pass the bill.

Opposition leaders had threatened to call a mass protest to pressure the government to drop plans to adopt the laws. 

The new law also includes requirements that all MPs should have a degree from a recognised university. 

Algerian footballer Maouche risked his career to play for a special team set up by the country's Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) independence movement. 

He told the BBC World Service how the "ambassadors of the revolution" helped the campaign for self rule:

Image source, AFP

Opposition activists in Gabon have called for a boycott of the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament which is due to kick off at the weekend, BBC Afrique reports.

The activists are protesting at the outcome of August's presidential election which opposition leader Jean Ping claims to have won. 

At a press conference in  the capital, Libreville they announced their intention to target the tournament as part of their continued pressure on President Ali Bongo to recognise what they call his defeat. 

More than six months after Mr Bongo was declared winner of the election, political tension between rival camps has not dissipated.  

Mr Bongo's offer for a national dialogue to end the controversy has been turned down by the opposition. 

Opposition candidate Jean Ping had alleged fraud in one of the president's main strongholds, Haut-Ogooue province, where Mr Bongo won 95% of the vote on a turnout of 99.9%.  

However Gabon's constitutional court upheld Mr Bongo's election victory, rejecting calls for a recount.  

A BBC correspondent has sent in some photos of the anglophone Cameroon city of Bamenda, where a call for a strike across the English-speaking regions of the country has left streets deserted.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), which called for the action, has accused the government of attempting to restart school education without addressing grievances over the use of French.

Bamenda was the scene of violent clashes with security forces during anti-government demonstrations in December and November but this time CACSC has urged people not to protest.

People have been tweeting scenes from various anglophone towns and cities under the hashtag #GhostTownMonday.

Image source, .

A BBC investigation has identified the man accused of organising the terror attack on a beach that killed 38 people in Tunisia.

Chamseddine al-Sandi is described as the "mastermind" behind the attack in documents obtained by Panorama.

He is named in confessions from suspects who were arrested in connection with the shootings.

Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on the beach and in the Imperial Hotel near Sousse in June 2015.

Rezgui was killed at the scene, but the documents obtained by Panorama say that he was recruited and directed by al-Sandi.

Read the full story here

Image source, Reuters

Ethiopia needs to "consolidate gains" after the deadly unrest last year before it can lift a state of emergency that was imposed in October, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said, Reuters news agency reported.

"As far as the date of lifting the state of emergency is concerned, it should be seen in the perspective that we have to consolidate the gains that we have made so far," he told a news conference.

He said the measure had helped restore "normalcy". 

Rights groups have said more than 500 people were killed in violence that was initially sparked by anger over a development scheme for the capital but which broadened into anti-government demonstrations. 

Members of the Oromo and the Amhara ethnic groups, who make up about 60% of the population, complain power is held by a tiny Tigrean elite.  

Tens of thousands of people have also been detained, rights groups say.  

The government said the measure would be in place for six months when it was first introduced.

Are Ethiopian protests a game changer?

It has been 10 years since US tech giant Apple launched the iPhone, revolutionising the smartphone market.

The BBC's Dave Lee spoke to Apple executive Tony Fadell about the surprising events that led to the launch of the first iPhone. 

Image source, AFP

"Steve had expressly told me it was totally top secret. He said he was going to fire anyone who tells the world.

"I was sweating bullets."

Tony Fadell was pondering just how he was going to explain to Steve Jobs that he'd lost the prototype of what would become the most successful technology product of all time, the Apple iPhone which launched 10 years ago on Monday.

He'd just got off a plane, felt his pockets, and... nothing.

Read full story. 

Image source, Reuters

Ghana's new President Nana Akufo-Addo has been caught plagiarising the speeches of two former US leaders.

In a speech at his presidential inauguration on Saturday, he said: 

At his 1993 inauguration, ex-US President Bill Clinton said:  

However President Akufo-Addo is not the first to have been caught out and he is unlikely to be the last.

The BBC has compiled  some previous examples of prominent politicians caught copying their speeches.

The include incoming First Lady Melania Trump, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and former Irish prime minister Enda Kenny.

Read the full story here

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari will on Wednesday lead his counterparts from Sierra Leone and Liberia to visit The Gambia in an attempt to resolve the political impasse, the Reuters news agency reports. 

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama says that the meeting will aim to press Mr Jammeh to hand over power to opposition leader Adama Barrow, the report says. 

The Gambia Supreme Court was set to listen to a petition tomorrow by President Yayha Jammeh challenging the 1 December election but reports say that the foreign judges from Sierra Leone and Nigeria will not be travelling to Banjul. 

Meanwhile, reports say that Information Minister Sheriff Bojang has fled the country and other officials could be following him:

Kenya's striking doctors have been given an ultimatum to report to work on Wednesday or face disciplinary action. 

Peter Munya, the head of the council of governors, the body that represents governors from the 47 counties, says that the doctors' jobs would be declared vacant and advertised if they don't show up to work:

The doctors have been on strike for a month over a pay deal that was agreed in 2013. An offer by the government to improve their salaries was rejected. 

Kenya has 3,956 doctors working public hospitals serving a population of 44 million. 

Ghana's new president, Nana Akufo Addo, was found to have lifted pieces of his inauguration speech from a George Bush speech in 2001. 

The office of President Addo has apologised, issuing a statement that said the plagiarism was a "complete oversight, and never deliberate". 

Speechwriter Lissa Muscatine, who has written speeches for both Bill and Hillary Clinton, has been speaking to the BBC World Service's Newsday programme about the pitfalls of plagiarism:

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

The remains of Rwanda's last king, Kigeli V, have arrived in the country following a court battle between his relatives over where he should be buried, an official has told AFP news agency. 

King Kigeli - who had been living in exile in the suburbs of Washington since 1992 - died in October aged 80.

His death prompted a spat between relatives living in the US and those in Rwanda over where he should be buried, and a US court ruled last week in favour of those in his home country. 

However Kigeli's Royal Council said in a statement that the king had not wanted to be buried in Rwanda "as long as the current government administration that was hostile to his majesty in life was still in power." 

Born Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, King Kigeli came to power in 1959 and was forced to leave the country the following year after clashing with the Belgian colonial power. 

In 1961, the monarchy was abolished. The king began a life of exile in east Africa, including Kenya and Uganda, before leaving for the US. 

For decades he spoke of returning to Rwanda as king as part of a constitutional monarchy similar to that which accommodates the British royal family. But the Rwandan government was only willing for him to return as a private citizen.

Police in Uganda have unveiled several sidecars to be used in police operations in the capital Kampala. 

The police say they will be deployed in operations against armed robbers and terrorists. 

Sidecars were popular in Europe in the 1930s:

Image source, Uganda Police PRO Dept

Image source, Uganda Police PRO Dept

Two female suicide bombers who each killed a resident on Sunday hugged their victims before detonating their explosives, witnesses quoted in a report on news blog Omojuwa said.

The attackers knocked on doors pretending to be internally displaced people (IDPs) and begged for hot food or a place to sleep because of the cold weather, the report said.

One woman told the reporter:

The visitor kept on knocking on doors.

The second explosion took place shortly afterwards when a man opened his gate to the suicide bomber, who hugged him and detonated her device, the report said.

BBC Focus on Africa sports presenter Piers Edwards has spotted a Sunday Times article asking whether Accra could be establishing itself as a top nightlife destination.

The article, external (behind a paywall) looks at a new nightclub, Carbon, opened by a top London club developer and frequented by people including Westerners with Ghanaian roots who are spending more and more time in Africa.  

Image source, Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires

Chad's ex-President Hissene Habre has gone to court to challenge his conviction for crimes against humanity.

His lawyers argue that the trial by a special court jointly set up by Senegal and the African Union was marred by procedural errors.

They also say the defendant's rights were not respected.

Mr Habre was the first former leader to be convicted by an African Union-backed court - his case was seen as a landmark for the continent.

As his appeal trial opened on Monday, one of his lawyers, Mbaye Sene, told the AFP news agency:

"We were motivated to appeal by the violations of the law and [the rights] of the defence and procedural errors."

Read the full story here

Image source, AFP/Getty

The drought that has gripped southern Africa for well over a year now is continuing. Rainfall has still been insufficient to replenish dams and reservoirs and the land remains parched.

Africa Business Report went to see how one agricultural entrepreneur in South Africa's Mpumulanga province, in the country's east, has been helping farmers rejuvenate their fields by employing earthworms to heal the soil:

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Freetown

The Gambia's Supreme Court is unlikely to convene and hear a petition by President Yayha Jammeh challenging the results of the 1 December election. 

Ahead of their planned sitting tomorrow, judges from Sierra Leone and Nigeria have still not travelled to The Gambia and are unlikely to do so, my judicial sources in the capital Banjul have confirmed. 

Sierra Leonean judge Nicolas Browne-Mark from has been spotted in the capital Freetown today. 

Four top Gambian judges have left the country and handed in their cars to the judicial secretary, thereby making it unlikely they could be asked to replace the foreigners. 

Only Justice O Uduma reported for work today. 

Gambia's Chief Justice, Nigerian-born Emmanuel Fagbele, had said that the five foreign judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone would arrive before the court sitting on 10 January to hear the election petition. 

Mr Jammeh's mandate ends on 19 January when President-elect Adama Barrow says he will declare himself president. 

There's been no comment from the government.  

British actor Tom Hiddleston paid tribute to aid workers in South Sudan in his speech at the Golden Globe awards ceremony last night in California. 

Hiddleston won Best Actor in a TV Drama for his part in the series Night Manager, which focusses on arms dealing.

He recounted a visit to South Sudan as a Unicef ambassador in which he met aid workers who told him that they had binge-watched the show as a distraction while they were holed up in their compound as fighting raged: 

His comments have however divided opinion. Some praised him for mentioning South Sudan in his speech:

While others accused him of purveying "white saviour" mentality: