KENYA: A two-year hiatus in political violence in Kenya ended at the weekend as a dispute over constitutional reform and splits within President Mwai Kibaki's coalition government sparked riots in two cities.
Paramilitary riot police using tear gas, batons and a water cannon fought hours of street battles with several hundred protesters in central Nairobi and the western city of Kisumu on Saturday after enforcing a ban on a pro-reform rally.
The protests - reminiscent of the fight between pro-democracy activists and the autocratic regime of former President Daniel arap Moi, though less well attended - were the first serious political violence since mid-2002, in the run-up to presidential elections that year, which Mr Kibaki won.
"Batons and tear gas, history teaches us, are sure signs of the dictatorship that the country painfully went through," wrote the Sunday Standard in an editorial.
Following a series of fresh multi-million-dollar corruption scandals and a surprise cabinet reshuffle last week in which Mr Kibaki brought in individuals from the former ruling Kanu party without consulting his coalition partners, the future of the ruling coalition is now at stake, say diplomats and government insiders.
Saturday's protests also saw a bizarre reversal of roles, with stalwarts of the corrupt former regime, including Mr Moi's son Gideon - who has been named at a public commission in connection with scandals - joining other MPs from the ruling coalition to push for reform on streets filled with tear gas and stone-throwing thugs.
The Kanu party was trounced in elections in December 2002, ending its 42 years in power. Hopes that Kenya could put behind it rising poverty, ethnic tension and economic decline were high following the elections, in which Mr Kibaki, a veteran politician, came to power at the head of a broad-based coalition promising to stamp out corruption and usher in change.
During the 1990s Mr Kibaki and many now in his close circle were themselves out on the streets in Nairobi, pushing for democratic reforms.
They are now at the heart of moves to prevent the adoption of a new draft constitution that would dilute the all-encompassing powers of the presidency.
In the reshuffle last Wednesday, he moved political rivals in the coalition and those backing constitutional change to more junior positions.