There's a missing name on some Kenyan ballot papers. Gay rights and other campaigners storm Uganda's Constiutional Court. South Sudan loses its government. And what do SA's "spy tapes" reveal?

Controversy over a local Senate by-election in Kenya made today's headlines of both the Nairobi-based Standard and the Daily Nation.

The by-election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Senator Mutula Kilonzo on 27 April will be held tomorrow. But it has caused much drama in the eastern Kenyan province of Makueni in the past few days.

Mutula Kilonzo Junior is among the candidates in the race to fill his late father's seat in the Senate. The problem is that his name was not printed on the official ballot papers and had to be superimposed on pre-existing ballots.

But a judge ruled that election laws did not allow patched-up ballot papers, a ruling which sparked protests from Kilonzo's party and supporters, explains the Daily Nation.

After long hours of dispute over a possible exclusion of candidate Kilonzo, the judge finally acknowledged that pasting a separate paper with Mutula's name on the ballots might be contrary to the electoral rules but was preferable to throwing the country into a constitutional crisis.

In Kampala minority groups including homosexuals, people living with HIV/Aids and prostitutes stormed the Constitutional Court earlier this week, reports the Ugandan Daily Monitor.

The protesters claim that the court has been delaying ruling on the case of Adrian Jjuuko vs Attorney General since September 2011.

Jjuuko, with the support of other advocates for sexual minorities in Uganda, was seeking court orders to repeal sections of the Equal Opportunities Commission Act, considered as discriminatory, if not openly homophobic.

The section states that the commission has no obligation to investigate crimes and affairs involving behaviour considered "immoral and socially harmful to the community".

Speaking to the Daily Monitor, a spokesperson for the Kampala court failed to give a reason for the delay but suggested that it could be due to the lack of a quorum.

The Sudan Tribune reports on South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit's dismissal of his vice-president Riek Machar and the dissolution of the two-year-old nation's entire government.

The decision was broadcast on state-controlled TV and included the removal of all ministers and deputy ministers, leaving the undersecretaries the task of running their respective ministries until further notice.

Kiir also called for an investigation of Pagan Amum, secretary general of the country's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), accusing him of inciting violence and criticising his actions.

The move by the South Sudanese leader sets a new chapter in the power struggle within the SPLM, explains the Tribune, a power struggle which has mounted over the last year as several key figures moved to challenge Kiir's candidacy in the 2015 elections.

The South African opposition Democratic Alliance Party called on the National Prosecuting Authority to hand over the court record that led to the dropping of fraud and corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma, reports the national daily Mail and Guardian.

The record is said to include recordings of phone conversations between former NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka and Leonard McCarthy, leader of the Scorpions, a now dismantled agency that investigated and prosecuted organised crime and corruption in South Africa.

The "spy tapes" had helped former NPA leader Mokatedi Mpshe get the charges of corruption and fraud against Zuma dropped in 2009 on the basis of unlawful interference.

Zuma and the NPA will oppose the application, explains the Mail and Guardian, on the grounds that the tapes formed part of his confidential representations to court during his trial.