Anti-Graft Czar Who Stood For Integrity

Kenya Times

08 February 2005 Page: 2

Plucked out of Transparency International (TI), Kenya chapter, to lead the graft war in the new Narc regime, John Githongo is one man whose consistency in fighting the vice is hardly doubted. Once described by BBC as the “high priest of good governance,” Githongo graduated with a degree in economics and philosophy and immediately set up the TI, Kenya, a platform from which he fought rampant culture of corruption. Together with this, he used a column in East African weekly, to hit out at the past regime for rearing the ghosts of bribery and fraud. Githongo was appointed a special Permanent Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics by the Kibaki administration and soon introduced a wealth declaration project which never brought much fruit. Since then, Githongo sunk low and not much would be heard from him even after allegations of new corruption in the new Government rose to a point of explosion.