Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has suspended a Supreme Court judge who is facing gross misconduct allegations.

Justice Jackton Ojwang will appear before a seven-member tribunal, which has been appointed to investigate the charges that include accepting bribes to influence judgements.

President Kenyatta suspended Justice Ojwang following the recommendations of the judicial service commission.

A statement from the commission says it also found reasonable grounds to remove the judge from the bench over conflict of interest and breach of the judicial code of conduct.

He has not commented on his suspension.

Justice Ojwang was at the centre of public attention in 2017 when he disagreed with the decision of the majority of judges on the Supreme Court to annul Mr Kenyatta's victory in elections, forcing a re-run of the poll.

Justice Ojwang’s suspension further taints the battered image of Kenya’s judiciary, which many Kenyans see as corrupt and incompetent.

Kenya’s Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu is also facing corruption claims.

She has challenged the allegations in court as she seeks to block her prosecution and possible removal from office.

Image source, Getty Images

More details are emerging of the final moments of an Ethiopian Airlines flight which crashed last month, killing all 157 people on board.

The pilots of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX plane initially took the emergency steps outlined by the manufacturer but still could not regain control,according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), external.

The WSJ quotes unnamed sources who it says were "briefed on the probe’s preliminary findings" from data downloaded from the plane’s black-box recorders.

The WSJ says that this calls into question Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) claims that by following established procedures to turn off the stall-prevention feature, pilots could overcome a misfire of the system and avoid crashing.

Last week, Boeing gathered hundreds of pilots and reporters for a presentation on proposed changes to the model, which mean the system no longer repeatedly makes corrections when pilots try to regain control of the plane, reports AFP news agency.

But, AFP adds, the FAA said it expected Boeing to submit the proposed fix "over the coming weeks" after it undertakes additional work.

The preliminary report on the accident will probably be issued this week, the Ethiopian government is quoted as saying by AFP.

Read more: Boeing 737 Max: What went wrong?

The hashtag #AlexTotalShutdown has been trending in South Africa.

News site news24 , externalreports that Alexandria, a big township near the main city Johannesburg, has been shut down completely following protests and that police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

News site Times Live , externalsays two suspected "ring leaders" were arrested over the protest to demand better public services - including the collection of rubbish - from the municipality led by the opposition Democratic Alliance.

Here are some tweets on the protests:

Matthew Kenyon
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Newly crowned Nigerian young player of the year Samuel Chukwueze sparked a remarkable comeback for Villareal as they hosted runaway La Liga leaders Barcelona in Spain.

The 18-year-old, who was recognised at the Nigerian Football Federation’s awards ceremony earlier this week, scored the first of his team’s four goals as they came back from 2-0 down to lead 4-2.

Cameroon’s Karl Toko Ekambi got their second. Unfortunately for Villareal, Lionel Messi came off the bench to make it 4-3 in the 90th minute and Luis Suarez scored the equaliser in a remarkable match deep into stoppage time.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

In a country where getting an ID card or driving licence can be a headache and visiting a government office might mean a long wait and even a bribe, you'd think a new biometric ID system would be welcomed.

But trust in Kenyan politicians is low and some people question whether the system will really make the delivery of government services more efficient as promised.

The High Court has ruled that the new biometric system must only be voluntary and has banned the state from sharing any of the information it collects.

In time Kenyans will find out if this helps cut red tape or turns out to be a corruption tainted white elephant.

Image source, Getty Images

A cholera outbreak caused by Cyclone Idai in central Mozambique has killed two people and infected more than 1,400, the health ministry has said.

A mass vaccination campaign is expected to start today to curb the spread of the disease.

Aid workers hope to vaccinate some 900,000 people.

Cholera is spread through contaminated food or drinking water and causes acute diarrhoea.

See earlier post

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Africa is a step closer to realising the dream of a single market after The Gambia ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade area. It becomes the 22nd country to sign and ratify the treaty.

A minimum of 22 ratifications are required to bring into force the single trading bloc that will be the biggest in the world, with an estimated market size of 1.7 billion people.

The deal, which was first agreed to by African leaders in Rwanda's capital Kigali in March 2018, will automatically come into play once the 22nd country deposits the ratification instruments with the African Union Commission.

Under the deal, African countries will trade more with each other, agreeing to reduce barriers such as tariffs.

This will in turn spur economic growth creating job opportunities which the African Union estimates will reach up to $7trn (£5.3trn) by 2030.

The AU says it hopes the single market will increase trade and the free movement of people across the continent.

BBC World Service

A researcher at Newcastle University in England, external believes she has uncovered the identity of the last African survivor of slavery in the US.

She is thought to be a woman called Redoshi who was taken from what is now Benin in West Africa in 1860 when she was 12 years old.

She was then shipped to the US despite the importation of new slaves being against US law.

Redoshi - later known as Sally Smith - was sold to a plantation in Alabama where she lived until her death in 1937.

Image source, AFP

Algerians have been celebrating in the capital, Algiers, after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his resignation with immediate effect after more than 20 years in power.

Car horns could be heard in the streets and people waved the national flag and sang in celebration.

One man, Selmaoui Seddik, told Reuters: "God willing, we will have a 100% democratic transition, this is very important. We need to remove the whole previous regime and that is the hardest thing."

Read the full BBC story here

Image source, Reuters

Concern is growing in Mozambique that food and other aid for victims of Cyclone Idai is being “diverted” or stolen.

The disaster relief agency chief, Augusta Maita, said controls had been stepped up following an increase in complaints about aid being "diverted".

She said:

Reacting to the allegations, the general secretary of the governing Frelimo party, Roque Silva, said wrongdoers should be held responsible and punished to serve as a deterrent to others.

The BBC's Jose Tembe in the capital, Maputo, says some people responsible for the distribution of aid, especially food, have been accused of taking it for themselves or their families.

The extent of the problem is still unclear but the fact that officials have publicly referred to it shows that they want to put a stop to it rather than see the situation worsen, he adds.

In the past, there have been allegations that aid was stolen and sold, our reporter says.

Nearly 90,000 Mozambicans are thought to be sheltering in temporary sites after Cyclone Idai swept through parts of the country last month, causing widespread destruction.

Read: 'We saw 200 bodies by the roadside'

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome back to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news and trends from across the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Ashley Lime and Naima Mohamud

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now, but you can 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 Tuesday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this shot taken by Gabonese photographer Yannis Davy Guibinga in Libreville:

Killian Ngala Chimtom
BBC Africa, Yaoundé

Image source, Getty Images

Cameroon's opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who faces several charges including hostility against the homeland and offence against the president of the republic, has asked to be tried in open court.

Mr Kamto was in court on Tuesday to ask for bail but when the judge insisted that the hearing take place in his chambers, he walked out.

The opposition leader's lawyer, Christopher Ndong, told the BBC that his client is a public figure and the public had a right to witness his judgement.

"Kamto and his entire legal team rejected the in-camera hearing for two reasons. First, the judge's chambers is too little to accommodate all the lawyers. Secondly, there is no law stipulating that that case be heard in private," he said.

The opposition leader says he won last year's presidential election. His party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, plans to carry out public demonstrations on 13 April to call for the release of their leader.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has launched a controversial biometric ID system which he says will enable people to access government services more easily.

Human rights groups went to court to challenge the legality of the system arguing that the digital database would infringe on people's right to privacy.

On Monday, Kenya's High Court ruled that the biometric system could go ahead but must not store people's DNA and should only be voluntary.

The court also warned the state that it must not share any of the information collected with any local or international organisations.

At the launch, President Kenyatta argued that the system had already helped save millions of dollars as several thousand ghost police officers - names on the payroll of people who don't exist - would no longer receive a salary.

Nigeria's government was not aware that one of its nationals was executed in Saudi Arabia on Monday until the details were published in a newspaper, an official has told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Abike Dabiri Erewa, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, questioned whether justice had been done.

The Nigerian woman was executed after being found guilty of drug smuggling.

She was killed along with two Pakistani men and a Yemeni man and was one of 20 Nigerians on death row in Saudi Arabia.

Ms Erewa said that the Nigerian authorities had lobbied the Saudi government to gain access to the prisoners but they were only allowed to visit once.

"As a nation we don’t condone crime and criminality but what we are asking for is a fair trial, let [the trial] be open and thorough before [the defendants] lose their lives."

There have been 43 executions already in the first three months of this year and according to human rights campaigners 2019 will see the highest number of beheadings ever if Saudi authorities continue in the same vein.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Mozambique's health authority says it will kick off a mass anti-Cholera vaccination campaign on Wednesday, following the delivery of nearly 900,000 doses on Tuesday.

Cholera is spread through human waste in the water supply.

The flood water itself is not the primary risk. Instead, the risk comes because the existing drinking water supplies having been damaged by the flooding.

"This cholera vaccine must be seen as complementary" to "individual and collective hygiene measures," Mozambique’s National Health Institute Director Ilesh Jani has said.

People should try only to drink clean water, Dr Jani said, adding that "the health ministry and its partners has been distributing pure water and purifiers in communities."

Image source, AFP

Fans with similar heritage to Eritrean-American rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was shot dead on Sunday in Los Angeles, have said his success and the way he embraced his identity meant a lot to them:

But amid tributes, shock and sadness, conspiracy theories have circulated online in response to the 33-year-old's shooting.

Police say 29-year-old Eric Holder is wanted in connection with his death.

But as is often the case following high-profile crimes, social media users have responded to his death by alleging a vast, complex conspiracy.

Read the full report by BBC Trending.

Image source, Unicef

The UN children's agency Unicef says nearly 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine have arrived in the Mozambican port city of Beira to help contain an outbreak of the water-borne disease that emerged in he wake of Cyclone Idai.

There are more than 1,000 confirmed cholera cases - most of which are in Beira. One person has died from the disease.

"Humanitarian teams are acting quickly to raise awareness in communities about symptoms and prevention methods," Unicef says.

The World Health Organization has helped set up seven cholera treatment centres.

Read more:

• Cyclone Idai: What are the immediate dangers?
• First cholera death in Mozambique as cases double

BBC World Service

Student demonstrators in Algeria have demanded the immediate resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika - a day after he announced he would step down by the end of the month.

Hundreds of young people marching in the capital, Algiers, also called for the governing elite around the president to be swept away. AFP news agency has filed these photos from there:

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Mr Bouteflika's attempt to run for a fifth term in office triggered weeks of massive demonstrations.

Under mounting pressure, the president said on Monday he'd resign by 28 April - the last day of his current mandate.