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

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this video from Kenya's capital Nairobi.

It follows the final of the English-Language Scrabble Players Association Championship:

Former BBC weather forecaster Peter Gibbs is on a mission.

He observes from northern Tanzania that people in the region lack weather stations that could accurately predict the weather to help them make farming decisions.

"There's no weather station measuring what's going on", he says:

He explains to Click's Dan Simmons how an automatic weather station specifically designed for Africa will work.

The weather gadget, he says, sends data via a specially designed SIM card every fifteen minutes.

Watch him explain more about his innovation:

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has backed a plan to sack more than 20,000 teachers who failed competency tests in the northern Kaduna state.

Mr Buhari called the situation tragic:

''It is a very very serious situation when teachers cannot pass the exam they are supposed to teach the children to pass. Is a very tragic situation we are in.''

The state's governor last week shared the marked tests on Twitter saying that the teachers had failed examinations for class four - that's the class for 10 year olds.

He said that the teachers will be sacked but they can re-apply in the fresh recruitment exercise if they believe in their skills.

The governor's spokesman Samuel Aruwan has told the BBC that the process will be completed by February 2018.

He added that at least 19,000 applications had been received to replace the teachers who did not get at least 75% in the competency test.

Labour unions have however opposed the plans to sack the teachers.

They have given the state a two-week ultimatum to rescind the decision saying the move was propaganda.

Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world according to UN children's agency Unicef.

It says that about ten million children have no access to basic education in the country, and that the education system is beset by poorly trained teachers and a lack of proper facilities.

Rage Hassan
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Election officials and observers in the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland say voting in the presidential poll, which has ended, appears to have proceeded smoothly.

Some voters queued for hours before the polls opened.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Somaliland’s constitution allows presidents to serve two terms but the current President Mohamed Silanyo, a British-educated economist, has decided to step down after just one, albeit extended.

Elections are meant to be held every five years. However the poll was delayed for two years due to drought and technical issues.

Three candidates are now vying to replace him in a close race.

The electoral commission says it may take several days before it announces the official result.

Image source, AFP

Zimbabwe's army chief has warned those responsible for "purging" the country's ruling Zanu-PF party to stop, or the military will step in.

General Constantino Chiwenga, who appeared at a press conference with another 90 senior army officers, did not refer to anyone by name.

Speaking at the army's headquarters, General Chiwenga said:

The rare intervention comes just a week after President Robert Mugabe sacked his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mr Mnangagwa, once seen as a successor to Mr Mugabe, has fled into exile.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

The Nigerian whistleblowers who reported a stash of $43m have yet to receive their reward, their lawyer told BBC Hausa.

The stash came to light in April.

The $100 bills were piled up in wardrobes and filing cabinets in an apartment in Lagos, Nigeria:

President Muhammadu Buhari sacked Nigeria's intelligence chief Ayo Oke after he was linked to the money.

In December the government promised to reward people who call out corruption with 5% of the money they give information about.

It was part of an effort to combat corruption.

But the whistleblowers' lawyer Yakubu Galadima told BBC Hausa that they even wrote to President Buhari to ask about the money, with no luck.

Nigerian Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun has however denied that the government is withholding the money.

She said in a statement that the reward for whistleblowers is being processed for payment this month.

The government claims that so far more than 20 other whistle-blowers have been paid.

Organisers of Rwanda's premier cycling event have shared a video of the winner of the first stage of the competition which opened yesterday.

Rwandan Joseph Areruya raced to the finish line as supporters cheered him on:

The BBC's Yves Bucyana has snapped pictures of the cyclists and fans in the capital, Kigali:

There's more action tomorrow.

Wanyama wa Chebusiri
BBC Africa

An independent oversight body that monitors the activities of the Kenyan police has called for the prosecution of police officers over the killing two children and 12 others.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) says that it had completed investigations over police's role in the post-election related violence.

Police were accused of hitting six-month-old baby Samantha Pendo on the head with a baton after forcing their way into her parent's home in the western city of Kisumu on 15 August.

Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper tweeted a picture of her funeral:

While nine-year-old Stephanie Moraa was allegedly fatally shot by police as she played on the balcony of their rental house in a slum in the capital, Nairobi.

Rights bodies estimate that at least 50 people were killed, mostly by security officers, after the 8 August election.

Image source, Getty Images

Nothing could better depict the ongoing supremacy battle in the continent's music scene as two awards given to Wizkid and Davido last night.

Wizkid beat Davido for the best artist prize at this year's African Music Awards (Afrima) held in Lagos.

He also won in Afrima's best song category for the hit song come closer.

However, his compatriot got the MTV Europe award for best African act, as we reported earlier.

BBC World Service

A South African court has ordered a former deputy government minister to pay a fine of around $7,000 ( £5,300) or face a year in jail after he was found guilty of assault.

Mduduzi Manana admitted assaulting three women at a Johannesburg nightclub, apparently after one of them said he was gay.

A video of the incident was widely shared on social media in South Africa.

Mr Manana admitted he had slapped one of the women in a phone call with her brother, which was recorded. He then resigned.

His supporters in court cheered when the sentence was read out, as it means he will probably not go to jail.

Voting for the BBC African Footballer of the Year 2017 is under way, with five nominees fighting for the ultimate prize.

We will be shortlisting all the nominees this week.

First up is Gabon's striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The Borussia Dortmund striker has been nominated for the fifth consecutive year.

Aubameyang, 28, has had an outstanding 2017, scoring 35 goals for Dortmund, with whom he won the German Cup.

The Gabonese became the first African to top the Bundesliga scoring charts outright and only the fourth player in Bundesliga history to hit over 30 goals - a feat that helped him become the sole African on Fifa's Player of the Year shortlist.

Does he have your vote? Then vote for him here.

A South African police officer is recovering in hospital after being attacked by members of a church.

The incident happened when traffic officers tried to tow away a car belonging to a member of the Johannesburg congregation.

A video circulating on social media shows angry church-goers approaching the officer, who fired warning shots.The officer is then punched to the ground:

The church has defended its members' actions, saying they were attacked.

Read more on the BBC News website.

It is estimated more than half of the official legal market in Ghana is controlled by four major firms - and not everyone can afford the services of their smart air-conditioned offices.

So there is an alternative: the so-called street lawyers.

Charges run from as low as five Ghanaian cedis ($1; £0.50) to swear an affidavit to 1,000 cedis for "letters of administration".

When Kenyan journalist Joseph Warungu was in Ghana's capital, Accra, he came across hawkers of legal services.

They sit in makeshift offices, moulded out of old shipping containers. For many of them an umbrella, a chair and a table are enough to form a "chamber".

Some operate under the blazing sun or in sweaty little cubicles.

The people who offer legal services are mainly commissioners for oaths, paralegals or letter writers.

They come complete with old-school typewriters and photocopying machines a museum would happily buy for exhibition.

But they are unlikely to want to part with these relics of a slower age - the typewriters here are still useful because there is no electricity.

Read Warungu's full experience in our regular feature, Letter from Africa.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

A South African commission has said it is not feasible to offer free higher education.

President Jacob Zuma has finally released the much awaited commission report which was written as a response to the so-called #FeesMustFall protests.

The executive summary of the report says the state cannot afford to provide free higher education:

The commission, led by retired judge Jonathan Heher, was established in 2016 to look into whether South Africa could afford to provide free education for students in higher education.

It followed nationwide protests by students using the hashtag #FessMustFall.

Demonstrations began in October 2015 at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand when students blocked the entrance to the university campus, following signs that the institution would raise fees by 10.5% for 2016.

The protests led to the closure of some of the country's top universities and prompted President Zuma to freeze tuition fees for a year.

President Zuma’s office denied reports that he is planning to announce free education for all, ignoring the Heher commission report.

The reports had said that the president had been looking for funds amounting to around $2,7bn (£2bn) from the treasury to fund higher education.

This led to the resignation of a senior official in the treasury citing interference by the presidency.

The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane also reinforced the idea that a wholly free tuition plan is not possible.

He said “Why should rich people be absolved from paying for their children’s education. If you are rich you must pay.”

Parents are suing the South African Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga after their young son fell through a toilet and drowned in a pit latrine, reports South African news site Times Live, external.

News 24 reports, external that in 2014 Michael Komape fell into a pit toilet at Mahlodumela Primary School, Limpopo, and drowned in human excrement.

His parents say the toilets were dilapidated so not fit for human use and are asking for three million rand ($207,000; £158,000).

The civil lawsuit got underway today at the High Court in Polokwane on Monday.

The department of Basic Education filed court papers denying any responsibility in the boy’s death, according to Times Live.

Image source, Getty Images

The founder of groundbreaking dating site Gaydar has died in his native South Africa.

Henry Badenhorst, 51, died after falling from a tower block on Saturday, news website Buzzfeed reported., external

He co-founded Gaydar, a dating site for gay and bisexual men, in 1999.

Mr Badenhorst was born in Johannesburg and was named in the top five of the Independent's Pink List of influential gay men and women at least twice in the mid-2000s.

The exact details surrounding Mr Badenhorst's death remain unclear.

He died a decade after his co-founder and former partner Gary Frisch fell to his death in London.

At one time Gaydar boasted more than four million subscribers. The founders went on to launch an award-winning radio station.

Read the full story on the BBC website.

At least four makeshift bombs exploded in the main city of Cameroon's English-speaking region overnight, the AFP news agency reports, quoting security sources.

"Four home-made bombs exploded in Bamenda, one at 21:00 and the three others at 3:00 am," the source said.

The AFP report says that there were no causalities and that the blasts caused minor damage.

The restive Anglophone region has experienced months of protests against what residents say is discrimination by the francophone majority.

Protesters have also been calling for secession, with some openly flying a blue and white flag of a would-be independent anglophone Cameroon.

Ambazonia would be the name of the breakaway state.

Watch: Cameroon's English-speaking protests explained.

Nigerian Wellington Jighere has failed to successfully defend his title in the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association Championship (Wespac) held in Kenya.

Mr Jighere won the Wespac title in 2015, becoming the first African to do so.

This time, the Nigerian wordsmith finished fifth overall.

He told Nigerian Punch newspaper that he made mistakes that cost him the title.

“I wanted to defend the title but I only got close. I believe that a few mistakes in some games cost me a few points and that wasn’t enough for me to get to the final,” he said.

Akshay Bhandarkar, from Bahrain, was crowned the winner.

Mr Bhandarkar beat Nigerian Peter Moses in the final.

His his last word was bein which, the Oxford English dictionary tells us, means pleasant.

Here's what the Scrabble board looked like at the end of the game, external:

Image source, Wespac

The event held in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, brought together 100 competitors from over 30 countries.

The next competition will be held in 2019.

The ninth edition of Rwanda's premier cycling event, Tour du Rwanda, is on its second day.

Organisers have been sharing videos on Twitter of the cyclists making their way through the streets, with crowds cheering them on:

The competition runs until 19 November.

Organisers say there's only one man to beat, Rwandan Jean Bosco Nsengimana aka Boy Wonder, whose record - set in 2015 - remains the one to beat:

Read more about five cyclists from Burundi who cycled hundreds of miles to compete previously.

Kenyan police say a man, who was arrested last week after he appeared on local TV as a witness to two fatal accidents in different parts of the country, has nine different names.

He has not commented.

A forensic report by the police has found that his reported name, Denis Muigai Ngengi, is also an alias.

It also found that his names are linked to various offenses including stealing, assault and impersonation.

It adds that there's no evidence of a trial for the alleged offences.

The police say in a statement that investigations are still ongoing.

A Kenyan journalist has shared the police statement and listed all the names:

Mr Ngengi came to public attention last week after a fatal road accident in the central region of Murang'a.

Observers noticed that he was the same man who gave a witness account after a helicopter crash on 21 October in Nakuru county.

Tweeters have been using the hashtag #WitnessChallenge, external on Twitter to copy his look.