High-Profile Kenyan Joins Opposition Call : Africa: Conservationist Richard Leakey provokes harsh reaction after aligning with government critics. Rising political repression may signal slide toward instability.

Famed conservationist Richard Leakey has boldly criticized the Kenyan government for corruption and social decay and joined the call for a new political opposition in his home country--a step that has provoked harsh reaction here, inflamed racial sensitivities and perhaps nudged this country closer to chaos.

About 100 armed Masai morans , or warriors, loyal to the government of President Daniel Arap Moi, stormed the Leakey family property southwest of Nairobi on Thursday, encircling the house and demanding that the “colonialist” leave. Leakey was not home at the time, but his family expressed fear for his safety.

He is the 50-year-old son of anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, known for their early human fossil finds in Africa. Leakey is brash and outspoken. He served the Moi government as director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, where his campaign to save elephants led to a worldwide ban on ivory trading.

Earlier this month, he turned Kenyan politics on its head by announcing his alliance with young opposition politicians and government critics. Leakey said they will form a new political party “to inject some sanity and maturity into the present political arena.”

It was the boldest intrusion of a white into opposition politics since the end of colonialism in 1963--and the government’s response has been swift and angry.

In this heavily Christian country, Moi denounced Kenyan-born Leakey as a godless, white colonialist with foreign ties. He asserted that Leakey and his allies were sponsoring the training of armed guerrillas in neighboring Uganda, a claim that one knowledgeable Western diplomat said was groundless and inflammatory.

The government-controlled media and party officials have been even harsher on Leakey, saying he was unfit to lead animals, let alone humans.

One political commentator described the Moi government as being in “utter panic” at the emergence of such a renowned critic from within.

An independent newspaper, the East Africa Standard, said the storming of Leakey’s property and the implied threats against him “have revealed a disturbing slide toward anarchy in our country.”

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The turmoil, plus a recent increase in political repression, bodes ill for one of Africa’s most stable and important nations--a country deeply dependent on international aid and tourism, both of which are in jeopardy from this country’s deteriorating reputation.

Leakey’s allies in the new opposition movement mostly are black Africans, including Paul Muite, a member of Parliament and one of Kenya’s best-known young anti-government leaders. Leakey has proposed no particular leadership role for himself in the movement, except as spokesman.

Like other “emerging” African democracies, Kenya suffers twin agonies: an authoritarian, established leadership with little tolerance for challenge and, simultaneously, an ineffective, factionalized political opposition.

As Kenya heads toward national elections and the promised drafting of a new constitution, the alliance of Leakey and Muite, among others, could foreshadow the emergence of a new, high-profile opposition--that is, if the government can bring itself to permit such a challenge.

Already, Moi said his government will not register or allow any political party backed by foreigners--and he went on to suggest that the new opposition alliance was just that. He added that it was “treasonable for anyone to collaborate with a foreign power.”

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In announcing the new movement, Leakey--who is now out of the country and unavailable for comment--said Kenya was beset by rampant corruption, failing health and education systems, crumbling services and spreading lawlessness: “Our country is slipping backward, standards are falling, the people are being cheated. Something must be done.”

Just last year, Kenya’s promise of political and economic reforms was widely applauded among developed nations, whose aid is a cornerstone to Kenya’s survival.

In recent months, however, the Moi government seemed to change course, stepping up political repression and sounding defiance against outside pressure.

The government has cracked down on journalists, raiding a local printing house, smashing presses and threatening foreign journalists with expulsion. It has accused charity groups, a legal aid society and even the British Broadcasting Corp. radio of inciting disorder here.

In response, Germany recently reduced its foreign aid to Kenya, and Denmark threatened the same. The respected Kenyan publication the Economic Review warned that much of $850 million in international aid pledges are now in jeopardy.

Many longtime political observers here say the government’s actions, taken individually, are in keeping with Kenya’s rough-and-tumble tradition. But one analyst said the collective intensity of the government’s intolerance toward critics had raised tensions “so high that Moi could lose control--and that’s when we’ll have real trouble.”