Last Thursday, an elite squad of government commandos known as Black Mambas stormed The Standard Group, the second largest media organization in Kenya. They disabled transmission equipment at the Kenyan Television Network and burned thousands of copies of the next day’s issue of The Standard newspaperl; both deemed to favor the political opposition. Completely disregarding the law. That’s what happens when there is nothing to check the government’s power. And this is Kenya, one of the better African countries when compared relatively to many of its neighbors. Now, everyday Kenyans and civil society advocates are protesting against these actions in the thousands.

NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 7, 2006 (AP)???????? Thousands of opposition supporters and human rights activists demonstrated in Nairobi on Tuesday to protest against last week’s raids on Kenya’s oldest newspaper and its sister television station.

It was the first time since Kenya’s 1963 independence that the government shut down major media operations. The country’s media have been reporting on corruption scandals swirling around President Mwai Kibaki, who has been seen as increasingly politically isolated.

Waving placards and shouting that Internal Security Minister John Michuki “must go,” about 3,000 demonstrators walked peacefully through the Kenyan capital.

Similar peaceful demonstrations were held in the southwestern towns of Nakuru and Eldoret, private TV reported.

Michuki ordered Thursday’s raids in which armed and masked police smashed The Standard Group’s printing press and disrupted Kenya Television Network’s broadcast for 13 hours. The Standard was back on the streets and KTN back on their air the same day.

The raids were condemned by Cabinet ministers, diplomats and citizens.

“It is vital that we have a free press in Kenya,” said translator Rhoda Atieno, 31. “The assault on the Standard newspaper group was outrageous and shouldn’t happen in a democracy, and those responsible should go, without negotiation.”

Some protesters held placards that read: “Mr. President, Stop Sponsoring State Terrorism.”

The raid happened after the opposition media had made many reports in recent months of corruption scandals within in the government. It also happened to coincide with the trial — well, one of them anyway — of the Forum For Democracy presidential candidate. The media would have compounded this story on top of the many other scandals rocking Kibaki’s legitimacy.

From what I can tell, and judging from the reports, Kibaki is becoming increasingly isolated not just by the people at large, but by the elites within his own government. If there were ever hope for greater liberalization of Kenyan democracy, it lies in members of the government joining with civil society advocates against the current government. Kibaki, meanwhile, seems to be increasingly relying on the security services to maintain power. Minister of Internal Security John Michuki seems to be one of the few ministers that agrees with the raid on “national security” grounds. As the other ministers see Kibaki trying to consolidate power in this way, they will likely cut their losses and run, leaving him out of office eventually.