My Beauty Best Teacher

As Kenya descends further into institutionalized corruption, Richard Dowden profiles the work of the exiled anti-graft campaigner - John Githongo

In an attempt to recover the billions of pounds missing from the Kenya treasury, Githongo employed Kroll, the London-based "risk advisory" company, to trace the money through western banks. The Kenyan government made a formal request to the British government and a former MI6 officer who worked in east Africa was commissioned to follow the trail of bank deposits from Kenya to Britain, Switzerland, Frankfurt and the Gulf states. But extraordinarily Kroll gave the management of the project to a young member of a prominent white Kenyan family, thereby putting the family - and the whole project - at grave risk...It seems that back in Nairobi a deal had been done between members of the new Kenya government and Moi's sons. The Kibaki government was rapidly losing interest in past robbery anyway. It was too busy organising its own. In opposition Kibaki's alliance had helped draw up a new constitution that included checks and balances to the presidency. It was supposed to be put to a national referendum but what Kibaki and his cronies - known as the "Mount Kenya Mafia" - had supported in opposition, did not suit them in government. They drew up a new version that did not include the main changes. The only way they could get that through the electorate was by bribing the voters. They set up a fictitious company called Anglo Leasing, said to be developing a new passport system for Kenya, and stuffed millions into it.

John Githongo on corruption and the poverty equation:

There's a sense in which corruption is the No. 1 manufacturer of poverty. In particular, it is the No. 1 engine of creating inequalities in developing societies -- which is worse than poverty in and of itself. It's one thing having high levels of poverty, but it's a completely different thing to have stark inequalities caused by corruption and the conspicuous consumption that comes with it. [The latter] leads to political contradictions that can destabilize a nation or at the very least undermine democratic progress.

More here

The Mars Group Blog writes:

Over the past week, there has been a renewed Government proposal, seemingly in response to public comments by ex-PS John Githongo, to grant conditional amnesties for corruption as a means of dealing with the past. Githongo’s proposal seems to be based on one of the elements of the Usawa Programme an election manifesto proposal of the Orange Democratic Movement – Mr. Githongo is associated with authorship of Usawa’s anti-corruption aspects...At a moral level, the Government’s proposals are discriminatory and will, of necessity, immunize certain known persons (named in numerous reports including the Kroll and Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry) for crimes at a time when Kenyans are generally opposed to selective immunity for the elite, and when poor Kenyans (such as Mburu, Mburu and Muiruri) do not receive the same treatment in their encounters with the criminal justice system...[continue reading]

Hat-Tip Ory!

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From the Nordik Africa Institute:

Courtesy of Ottawa Citizen

The struggle against corruption in Africa has come to rest partly on the initiatives of individuals of great convictions. However, the struggle for a fair, just and equitable humanity risks losing direction if it relies primarily on individual initiative at the expense of collective action and on modernizing institutions at the expense of transforming their internal work cultures for better state-society relations. John Githongo’s presentation will reflect on the essentials to transforming institutions and the role local level ideas and participation can play. He will illustrate this using the Zinduko and Twaweza initiatives that he currently co-ordinates...[watch accompanying video here]

Listen to talk here

Patrick Smith at the FT reviews Michela Wrong's It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower:

These are hard times for anti-corruption campaigners, and harder still in Africa where activists face harassment and sometimes death. According to United Nations and World Bank estimates, corruption and transfer pricing cost Africa more than $150bn a year.Michela Wrong’s compelling book, It’s Our Turn to Eat, charts the career of a doughty opponent of this corruption: Kenyan anti-graft campaigner, John Githongo. By describing Githongo’s efforts, Wrong explains the mechanics of corruption within government and business circles and why so much western development policy in Kenya fails.

Twaweza's name means:

...“we can make it happen” in Swahili. It is a new citizen-centered initiative, focusing on large-scale change in East Africa. Twaweza believes that lasting change requires bottom-up action. We seek to foster conditions and expand opportunities through which millions of people can get information and make change happen in their own communities directly and by holding government to account.

John Githongo and William Gumede write in the FT:

There are leadership failures across Africa. The meltdown in Zimbabwe has focused the world’s attention on just one. Robert Mugabe’s efforts to prolong his rule have provoked an unusually strong African reaction. This may be because Africans are beginning to recognise that there are no “national” crises. The deepening social and economic interdependence of their countries mean that Zimbabwe’s problems are regional and truly African. Across the continent people are demanding more from very limited democracies...[continue reading]

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Founded by John Githongo Inuka! is "...dedicated to inspiring Kenyans at every level to take charge of improving their own lives by promoting Heshima (dignity and respect for others), Diversity (inclusiveness and equality) and Self-Belief: Ni Sisi! – It is Us! And, Inuka believes It is Up to Us to transform Kenya into a country of which we can all be proud. Kenyan problems must be met with Kenyan solutions..."

Business as usual, French corruption in Africa.
The passing of a whistleblower-David Munyakei via Displaced African
Another call for Intra-African trade.
Emerging markets have more to say-Mbanking
Questioning Abdoulaye Wade...
The paradox of plenty against a backdrop of plunder.
Nigeria and Ethiopia top investment index via African Loft
Zimbabwe farmers make progress in Nigeria.
More on the Africa Asia comparison theme from Coldtusker
The Gulf continues to invest in the continent.
How Mugabe steals.. via Global Voices
Bongo's french accounts frozen...Switzerland next?
Githongo on corruption-Economist

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