The Kenyan press has given a lukewarm welcome to the removal of a UK advisory against travel to Kenya and the lifting of a ban on British Airways flights to Nairobi and the coastal resort of Mombasa.

Earlier in the week, the papers were scathing about the original decision, calling it damaging and unfair. Similar measures imposed by the United States remain in force.

"British shouldn't expect Kenya to be grateful", says Kenya's East African Standard.

It is evident that Kenya is being driven to desperation by Washington and London East African Standard

It says that the travel ban had damaged Kenya's tourism and that by lifting it "London is simply undoing what it did not have to do in the first instance".

The move to ban British Airways flights to Kenya was "rash, despondent and sensational", the paper adds.

"And it had the ultimate effect of destroying what Kenyans have been trying to build for years."

Before the measures were lifted, the same paper said: "It is evident that Kenya is being driven to desperation by Washington and London."

The measures, it said, were "worse than the withdrawal of balance of payments support by the World Bank and IMF".

Umbilical cord

The Nation is more charitable in its reaction.

The lifting of the measures "seems like a step to a full restoration of normalcy", it says.

It would be strange to suggest that Kenya is lacking the will to fight terrorism The Nation

Earlier in the week, the same paper asked indignantly: "What do the Americans want?".

Kenya, it admitted, is and has been under intense diplomatic pressure from Britain and the US over terrorism. But it had done its best to counter the terrorist threat.

"It would be strange to suggest that it is lacking the will to fight terrorism," the paper says, adding that the Kenyan Government had "leaned over backwards to accommodate the Americans".

Imperialist 'poodle'

The People Daily focused on the United States' advisory.

"The government of Kenya must not allow itself to be bullied into violating the rights of its citizens to please Uncle Sam," it said.

Not surprisingly, there are many who are seeing a naked assault on our sovereignty Kenya Times

"The harassment of Kenyans of Arab descent and Muslims can only serve to deepen resentment against the US and the government."

The paper said such moves would "radicalise the population and spawn a whole new generation of local terrorists".

The government "must not allow itself to be poodle for imperialistic neo-colonial powers," it concluded.

The opposition paper Kenya Times voiced concern over the economic implications of the ban saying that it was "for all practical purposes choking Kenya from an economic point of view".

"Not surprisingly, there are many who are seeing a naked assault on our sovereignty," the paper said

"Should we cower and allow this to be rubbed in?" it asked. "This will not be acceptable."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.