There's political sparring in Kenya following a deadly school bus crash. Will the Marikana massacre victims receive justice? Ugandan teachers strike for back pay. And a Burkinabé take on Mali's election.

Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has launched a scornful attack on President Uhuru Kenyatta's government, reports the national daily the Standard, accusing it of disregarding the people's needs.

The comments by the leader of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) came during a memorial service for 15 victims of the 10 July school bus crash in Kisii.

Kenyatta, who was expected to attend the service, was strongly criticised after he called off the trip at the last minute. Odinga claimed Kenyatta's administration is showing signs of a wounded leadership and is incapable of healing a country still suffering from a divisive general election.

Angry mourners blocked attempts to read Kenyatta's condolence message as the mass funeral service turned into a political duel between Cord and the government party.

In contrast, Raila was received with jubilant chanting, the Standard report.

The school bus crash is on the front page of another Kenyan publication, the Daily Nation, which reports on the government's decision to draft new guidelines on school transport in an attempt to curb road accidents.

The Kenyan educaton ministry is set to issue the guidelines next month, says the Nation, making safety belts mandatory in every school bus and enforcing respect of capacity limits.

The South African newspaper Business Day returns to the August 2012 strike in the north-western village of Marikana, where 34 miners lost their lives at the hands of police.

While the state has turned down all requests to fund the legal representation of the 300 injured and arrested miners, says the newspaper, millions have been spent on legal representation for the police.

Also, in addition to civil compensation claims, the injured and arrested could still face serious charges such as public violence and assault charges.

The paper explains that the miners of Marikana had been charged with the murder of their own colleagues by the National Prosecuting Authority in the wake of the massacre but these murder charges had been withdrawn after public outrage.

The victims of Marikana may never find justice, concluded the article, as hope grows thin that anyone will be found accountable for the events of August 2012.

The Daily Monitor in Uganda covers the ongoing national teacher strike, as it enters its third day of protests over the government's failure to pay salaries since April.

The Uganda National Teachers' Union general secretary James Tweheyo said it would be unfair and risky for parents to send their children to school when they are not being taught or supervised.

Teachers countrywide are bound to down tools over unpaid salaries, explains the newspaper, as many schools across the country have already stopped working, often because of lack of funding.

The Ministry of Education permanent secretary Doreen Katusiime said yesterday that she was not aware that teachers had stopped teaching pending their payments, reports the Monitor.

Burkina Faso-based Le Pays takes a look at neighbouring country Mali and at the stakes of the presidential elections there.

Mali will be putting much more than its credibility as a democracy on the line on 28 July, the paper argues, its very unity and survival as a nation are at stake.

Everything must be done to insure a high turnout, adds Le Pays. That is the only way to avoid any questioning and possible uprising over the result.