Mugabe promises to go quietly ... if he loses today's presidential poll. Kenyan soldiers get a pay cut. Two Kenyan officials are freed after two years as prisoners of Al-Shebab. Crime in Uganda is on the up. And Kenyan brewers' profits slump.

South Africa's Mail and Guardian reports on comments by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who says the country's generals will not interfere with the smooth transfer of power, should he lose today's elections.

Speaking to journalists at a rare press briefing yesterday, Mugabe presented his generals as disciplined and law-abiding citizens, who would follow the rule of law.

According to the Mail and Guardian, the announcement comes after some of Zimbabwe's military service chiefs vowed not to "accept or salute" any leader without war credentials.

Mugabe has also denied the generals were forcing him to stay in power, adds the daily, and declared such statements were being spread by his rivals as part of the "political game".

The Nairobi-based Standard headlines with what it calls a state of "confusion and unease" in the Kenyan military, after soldiers suffered a significant pay cut.

The Standard established that the troops' pay had been reduced thanks to the exclusion of food and laundry allowances that they have enjoyed for some time.

Soldiers, speaking to the daily anonymously as military protocol forbids them to comment publicly on the matter, said the change came after the implementation by Kenya's Revenue Authority of a requirement that even state officers pay tax on allowances.

The daily explains that military officials have played down the concerns with a Department of Defence spokesperson saying there was no discontent among the military's rank and file and that the whole story was a misunderstanding.

The Daily Nation reports on the release of two Kenyan officials abducted almost two years ago by Al-Shebab.

The daily explains that, during the abduction on 12 January 2012, about 100 Al-Shebab fighters attacked and destroyed an administration police camp in the north-east of the country.

Six Kenyans were killed in the raid, adds the paper, three months after the Kenya Defence Forces entered Somalia to wage war against Al-Shebab militias.

The Somalia-based, al-Qaeda-linked group demanded that Kenya release some of its members being held on terrorism charges, reports the Standard, including suspects on trial for deadly bomb attacks in Kampala in 2010.

Uganda's annual report on crime shows a general increase in 2012 over the previous year, according to the Kampala-based Daily Monitor.

The report states that the number of people killed daily in the country has increased from 10 in 2011 to 11 in 2012, as the general crime rate rose by one per cent.

Presenting the report, the paper says the Inspector General of the Kampala Police said the developments were cause for worry and needed to be investigated, as the crime rate in Uganda shows its first upward trend in more than six years.

If defilement, petty theft and assault are at the top of the list, corruption, robbery and economic crimes also continue to increase, explains the Monitor, although the increase in corruption cases could be a result of vigilance among public servants rather than more incidents.

Talking of alarming numbers, the East African Breweries Limited in Kenya has announced a fall in its yearly profits for 2013 by more than 25 per cent, reports the Nairobi-based East African.

As the story makes the headlines, the brewery explained that the drop in the full year results was due to the sale of shareholding parts in Tanzania Breweries, which had inflated the 2011 numbers, while the Monitor points out that the "bitter" announcement comes five months after the group's former managing director announced he was throwing in the towel.