Kenya: Kenya's controversial first lady was at the centre of a political storm yesterday after a bizarre sit-in at the country's leading daily newspaper.
Lucy Kibaki arrived at the offices of the Daily Nation shortly before midnight on Monday to protest at the paper's coverage of her row with a neighbour.
Ms Kibaki, increasingly seen as an erratic but powerful force behind a frail president, slapped a cameraman and seized reporters' notebooks and mobile phones. She refused to leave until 5am, after giving a press conference in front of exhausted journalists in the third-floor newsroom.
"If you think Kenyans are blind and not intelligent, you cheat yourselves," she told the journalists, waving a copy of the newspaper on the eve of World Press Freedom day. "They know who are the people you support in this country. But you don't have to ruin the lives of others by being so nasty."
Her husband, Mwai Kibaki, was elected president in 2002 but cuts an increasingly impotent figure. His celebrated anti-corruption drive has ground to a halt and he appears slow and ponderous during public addresses.
Senior government officials have privately admitted his mental abilities have declined since a reported stroke.
Meanwhile, his wife has moved into the limelight.
The latest incident began on Friday night when Ms Kibaki interrupted a party to celebrate the departure of Mukhtar Diop, the outgoing Kenya director of the World Bank. He lives in a house rented from the Kibakis, who live nearby.
Witnesses said Ms Kibaki, dressed in pyjamas, complained three times about the noise before attempting to disconnect the power to a sound system. She later visited a local police station demanding that Mr Diop be arrested for disturbing her sleep.
Her late-night antics were splashed all over Monday's newspapers, headlined "Shame of the first lady" in one tabloid, prompting her nocturnal visit to the Daily Nation.
Antony Kaminju, photographic editor, said he was shocked to be confronted by the first lady.
"She had some reasonable complaints about the accuracy of parts of the story, but before the press conference she was making very little sense," he said. "You can only say that she appeared very stressed."
During her protest she ordered her security detail to fetch breakfast from the president's residence. Ms Kibaki has a long-standing feud with Moody Awori, the vice-president, after he called her the "second lady" - a not very subtle allusion to press speculation about her husband's relationship with another woman.
Last month she announced her husband would run for a second term. Mr Kibaki kept silent on the issue, prompting criticism his wife was making the decisions.