Kenyans fear a slide back to the dark days of dictatorship after bloody weekend street battles in Nairobi brought to a head Kenya's worst political crisis since President Mwai Kibaki came to power 18 months ago.
Police armed with teargas, batons and water cannons fought running battles with hundreds of demonstrators demanding a new constitution on Saturday, in scenes reminiscent of repression under former President Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule.
"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.
"The events of yesterday have suddenly thrust the country back into darkness and eroded all the gains made since 2002."
But Lands and Settlement Minister Amos Kimunya, a key ally of Kibaki's, said police exercised restraint and dismissed the demonstrators as "misguided people seeking cheap publicity".
"It would have been brutal but the police handled the situation well, unlike in the last government," he told Reuters.
Kibaki - hailed with euphoria on his inauguration 18 months ago at Uhuru Park, the venue of Saturday's clashes - crushed Moi's chosen heir at polls on promises to reform a constitution critics say created a "Big Man" president under Moi's rule.
"I hope the events of yesterday will sober up everyone and everybody and galvanise us to arrest the situation," Professor Idha Salim, a political analyst and the vice-chairman of a constitutional review commission, told Reuters. "We should not let things slide any further."
Kibaki's decision to delay the enactment of the new constitution, which aims to trim the president's huge powers and promote democracy, has prompted bitter cabinet wrangling.
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