Moi under siege on streets of Nairobi

Kenyan students in new clashes as pressure for reform grows

Students clashed with police loyal to Daniel arap Moi, the Kenyan President, for a second straight day in Nairobi yesterday, while opposition politicians warned of further violence if the government does not agree to basic constitutional reforms.

Early yesterday students threw rocks at police who prevented them re- entering Kenya Polytechnic, which was closed by the authorities following riots on Monday. Small groups of students continued to congregate along the street throughout the day, shadowed by truck loads of police with tear gas and riot gear.

The police made occasional charges to disperse groups of students - some of whom tried to block the busy Haile Selassie Avenue with burning debris - but there was no repeat of last week's heavy-handed police action, in which police killed at least nine pro-reform demonstrators, including two students, with clubs, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

A number of arrests were made over the past two days but there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries. One student told The Independent that the use of live ammunition last week made students unwilling to push confrontation too far.

"I think many of us will go home," said Joram, a 24-year-old student of surveying. "The way the situation is around here, we are going to die if we do anything. You could say we are living in fear."

While many students said they were demonstrating in favour of constitutional reforms leading to greater political freedom, others said the riot was sparked when the college authorities reacted harshly to a student protest over academic grievances on Monday.

According to one Western diplomat based in Nairobi, the political atmosphere is now so tense that even relatively non-political disputes can quickly swell into public protests calling for the abolition of restrictions on movement, speech and political organisation.

Supporters of reform say that last week's killings prove that President Moi is bent on using repressive colonial era laws to ensure a further extension to his 19-year rule when elections are held later this year.

While opposition politicians and church leaders continue to call for constitutional reform in advance of the elections, they have so far failed to organise any mass actions or protests to build on the public fury at last week's violence.

Notoriously divided, opposition parties have failed to agree even amongst themselves on what to do next. The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy in Kenya, one of the two main opposition parties, is publicly split on whether it should resist the poll or once again accept President Moi's assurances that reform is on its way.

The reformist Safina party, founded by the paleontologist Richard Leakey, retains some credibility with ordinary Kenyans and foreign observers but is still officially illegal because Mr Moi's government refuses to register the party.

Yesterday Mr Leakey said that the reformist National Convention Executive Committee - a coalition of political parties, mainstream churches and NGOs - would launch an escalating series of mass actions if the government did not agree to constitutional reform. He identified the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya's main tourist centre, as the next target for protest.

Conciliatory noises from President Moi, who has promised to begin a debate on the issue within his Kenyan African National Union party, have been contradicted by hardliners in his own entourage. Referring to a police attack on the Anglican cathedral in Nairobi last week, the Minister for Transport and Communications, Mr Wilson Ndolo Ayah, accused the Anglican church of "engaging in criminal activities by giving refuge to hooligans, thieves and other mischievous characters who were insulting and stoning fellow Kenyans in the name of calling for constitutional reforms."

The government is also under strong pressure to reform from the international community, which is concerned at the growing potential for violence and at Kenya's continuing failure to deal with rampant corruption.

Following last Monday's killings the United States State Department issued an unusually strong statement deploring the government's use of "strong arm tactics" in an "extreme response" to "instances of peaceful protest". Britain, the former colonial power and still the major political and economic influence in Kenya, has joined 21 other countries in calling for political dialogue on constitutional reform.

The government in Nairobi has so far rejected the calls, but with the US and Britain at the head of 20 Western countries calling for dialogue and reform. It risks losing the aid money it needs for its day-to-day survival.