Githongo Resigned Abroad Because He Feared For His Life East African Standard 09 February 2005 Page: 1
President Kibaki’s advisor on corruption, Mr John Githongo, handed in his resignation from London because he feared for his life, The Standard has learnt.
A close friend of Githongo said the anti-corruption crusader had told him he would not hand in his resignation in Kenya because he feared corruption kingpins would assassinate him.
The friend, who is a senior cleric, added that Githongo had told him about his frustrations in the Government a few days before he flew out of the country.
"He confided in two of his close friends that he feared if he resigned while in the country he would have been assassinated, just the same way a bank manager was eliminated in Kiserian and nothing was taken from him," the source said.
When they spoke, the friend said, Githongo had already made up his mind about quitting the Government "owing to lack of political will to fight graft".
Githongo resigned on Monday as PS in charge of Governance and Ethics, dealing a devastating blow to the Government’s stated anti-corruption crusade.
He resigned while on official duty in the United Kingdom where, together with Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Director Aaron Ringera, they met representatives of Kroll and Associates, a firm retained by the Government to track down looted money in foreign banks.
Githongo attended the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland, after being nominated a "Young Global Leader under 40" by the World Economic Forum. He was there from January 25th to 30th and held a series of meetings with various international leaders.
He then went to Oslo, where he linked up with Ringera for a closed-door session of anti-graft czars from around the world organised by the Norwegian Government. The meeting has been described as "very productive", but its proceedings were confidential.
Githongo then went to London with Ringera and were joined by Ms Dorothy Angote, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, for a private in-depth meeting on the Kroll project, aimed at the recovery of USD1 billion (Sh80 billion), believed to have been hidden overseas after being acquired corruptly in Kenya by senior public officials.
On Monday just before midday, he walked into the Kenyan High Commission in London and handed over a letter of resignation for the President to be dispatched by emergency diplomatic bag. He had already arranged for a fax to be sent to State House bearing the same news.
Friends of the family said he was in a distracted frame of mind when he left Nairobi.
Because he worked for the President directly, Githongo’s resignation is certain to bring to question the Kibaki’s own commitment to the fight against corruption.
His departure creates the worst political and confidence crisis for Kibaki since he came to power in 2002, coming as it did amidst public and donor pressure for the Government to demonstrate that it intends to tackle runaway corruption in high places. In his statement of resignation, Githongo did not say why he was quitting, merely stating that he was unable to continue.
Yesterday, the close friend told The Standard that Githongo had information on all the 20 — and even more — cases of corruption the British High commissioner Sir Edward Clay recently talked about.
"Githongo knew about the 20 cases Sir Edward talked about and he even had more and was frustrated after his advice on how the cases should be handled was ignored," said the friend. He added that Githongo would be away for a while "until things cool down because of the impact his resignation has caused".
Last week, Clay read a hard-hitting statement declaring that the Government was not serious in fighting corruption.
He accused the Kibaki government of covering up corruption and said the emergent graft in the new administration was far worse than originally thought. In a stinging criticism of the Government, Sir Edward singled out the Office of the President as one of the leasing customers of corruption.
He revealed that his government had given the Kenyan government a list of 20 procurement contracts, which it considered suspect. Sir Edward criticised President Kibaki for failure to take action against top government officials linked to shady mega-million shilling contracts.
Yesterday, the US government froze part of aid to Kenya and Kenya’s leading donors appeared to give President Kibaki an ultimatum to prove his anti-corruption ultimatum.