People in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi demonstrated for the second day against proposed constitutional changes that will leave the country with a watered down premiership and an ultimately authoritative presidency. The government has banned the demonstrations, but protestors say they will take to the streets for a third day. Clashes are also being reported in cities elsewhere.

NAIROBI, July 21 (Reuters) – Kenyan riot police guarded the rubble-strewn streets of Nairobi on Thursday as protest leaders promised a third day of demonstrations against President Mwai Kibaki’s handling of a constitution reform.

The protests — which have turned central Nairobi into a battle-ground with one person killed on Wednesday — have galvanised growing disillusionment with Kibaki’s two-and-a-half year rule.

They have also raised fears of a return to the dark days of violence under former President Daniel arap Moi, whose authoritarian 24-year rule ended in 2002.

“We will put up as much protest as necessary to stop a few politicians disregarding the will of the people,” Kotiamet Ole-Kina, whose Katiba (Constitution) Watch group is one of those organising the demonstrations, told Reuters.

About 20 people were detained during the violence. Ten of them appeared in court on Thursday morning charged with creating a disturbance and malicious damage.

The protests had been banned by the authorities.

Police said four people were injured, but protesters said about 20 had been hurt in two days of fighting between security forces and protesters around the Kenyan parliament.
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Local media expressed deep concern with the violence.

“The bigger picture is that the country is steadily sliding back into those dark days when citizens had to battle police to get any changes they wanted,” the Daily Nation said.

There is so much I could say about the failure of leadership in Africa, but The Globe and Mail says it so well.

In the heady weeks after a new government took power in Kenya in late 2003, a startling thing happened all over the country. Ordinary Kenyans, newly released from the brutal 24-year reign of Daniel arap Moi, began making citizen’s arrests. When police officers stopped them and demanded bribes, standard practice during the Moi years, people turned them in.

They had good reason to think they were living in a new Kenya: The government of Mwai Kibaki moved swiftly in its first weeks in office, promising a new constitution within 100 days. Corrupt judges were suspended. A brand new team of prosecutors was hired to investigate all shady dealings.

Mr. Kibaki said there would be a truth-and-reconciliation commission, to unearth the facts about corruption and abuse of power in the past. He appointed John Githongo the crusading head of the Kenyan branch of the watchdog organization Transparency International, as his personal adviser on corruption, positioning him right in the heart of government. Donor countries, who pour money into this largely peaceful East African country, were delighted, while ordinary Kenyans indulged in great expectations.

Two and a half years on, those expectations have been thoroughly dashed. “We were handed over from the crocodile to the hyena,” Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, said with a bleak little laugh.

There is no truth commission. Progress on the constitution led to riots yesterday in Nairobi — Kenyan security forces battled protesters in a second day of unrest touched off by moves to protect the President’s power in an overhaul of the country’s constitution. The Moi millions in European accounts, which the new government once promised to retrieve, are no longer mentioned. The corruption squad has managed to nail only a handful of minor bureaucrats, while cabinet ministers implicated in corrupt deals sail around town in their Mercedes staff cars. And the police still demand bribes; no one dares a citizen’s arrest any more.

I think after that, there’s not really much more to say. Well, except that a good friend of mine is in Kenya working with children who have AIDS, and I’m expecting some even more interesting stories now…