E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - The Intrigues And Githongo Exit

When the news of Mr John Githongos resignation broke, one office that was swamped with calls from local and foreign media was the Nairobi "Community Hill" premises of the local chapter of Transparency International, which Mr Githongo was associated with for many years before joining the Government.

The person they were badly looking for was nowhere to be found. Could TI-Kenya possibly have been in touch with him? There was nothing much the current director, Ms Gladwell Otieno, could help the journalists with. What she didnt tell them was that she had spoken with Mr Githongo from London shortly after he faxed his bombshell - the letter of resignation. She also did not mention that her deputy, Mr Mwalimu Mati, and a long-time consultant with TI-Kenya, Mr Parsalelo Kantai, were in London and had probably linked up with their old friend.

Actually Mr Githongo was together with one of them on the Saturday preceding his Monday resignation. It would be far-fetched to say they were instrumental in his decision, but quite obviously the tense end-game Mr Githongo was playing out that weekend required all the moral support he could get.

Mr Mati is studying at Bradford University on a British Council scholarship, while Mr Kantai is on a different programme being administered through Oxford University.

One person who was almost certainly not in the know of what Mr Githongo was up to was Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Director Aaron Ringera, who flew together with Mr Githongo from Norway to London for what was supposed to be a brief stopover on their way home. Evidently that was the point Judge Ringera wanted to hammer home at a press conference last week where he insisted that his commission would not be stampeded by anybody in its work.

There have been insinuations from officialdom that Mr Githongo was being suspected of "leaking" corruption-related secrets to foreign diplomats. Such were the rumours last July when British High Commissioner Edward Clay made the notorious "vomiting-on-our-shoes" outburst last July. (Interestingly this was around the same time when Mr Githongo had briefly been shunted out of State House in a major Cabinet reshuffle). The insinuations that he was a mole for the Governments foreign enemies hit a crescendo precisely because his resignation coincided with with Mr Clays latest outburst. But many people who know Mr Githongo personally and professionally find it difficult to believe the insinuations. He is generally known as decent, straightforward and sociable.

Before he quit, his family had sensed something was wrong. "We were not terribly surprised when it came (the resignation)," Mr Githongos younger brother, Gitau, a businessman, told the Sunday Nation on Thursday. "Around Christmas we got strong hints that he wanted out. That is when some of us learned that he had not been given prior warning that he would be moved in the June reshuffle." Of course, there is more than a sense of regret in the larger Githongo family about how all this has played out. John Githongos docket was unique in itself, but perhaps more interesting is the close bond his family shares with other privileged Establishment families, particularly the Kibakis.

Indeed, it is a story of a scion of this Establishment who, like the Prodigal Son, decides to break free and go his own way. Mr Githongos father, Mr Joe Githongo, was one of the very first indigenous accounting consultants (he founded the venerable Githongo and Company auditing firm). He is an old and very close friend of President Kibaki. Another significant bond is the old-boy school network. Githongo senior went to Mangu High School, the alma mater of President Kibaki and many of his friends.

John Githongo went to the Catholic-run St Marys School in Nairobi, the place of choice for children of the elite in the 1970s and 1980s. A sampling of the schools alumni of John Githongos generation includes Kanu chairman Uhuru Kenyatta, his brother Muhoho and sister Nyokabi, former President Mois son Gideon, and also President Kibakis children Jimmi, David, Tony, and Judy (the school admitted girls in the higher forms). Also in St Marys then was Mr Alfred Gitonga, currently President Kibakis personal assistant.

Considered one of the more inspired appointments that President Kibaki made on coming to power, Mr Githongos Ethics and Governance portfolio had been conceived much earlier. The people who actually sold the idea of an anti-corruption office answerable directly to the President were the elder Githongo and another Mangu alumnus, Mr Joe Wanjui, now the Chancellor of the University of Nairobi.

TI-Kenya had been established by Githongo senior, who was close to Mr Peter Eigen, a former World Bank official who founded the global TI movement. Teaming up with Githongo senior on the TI-Kenya board were Mr Wanjui, former Treasury PS Harris Mule, and former Central Bank deputy governor Ahmed Abdallah.

Mr Githongo, already serving as TI-Kenya executive director, looked tailored for the job. Right from the start, Mr Githongo was enthusiastic over his new job. He would tell close friends how Mr Kibaki was a "gifted" chief executive and how he gave everybody a free hand. It was during this honeymoon period that the decision to establish the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry was made, and Mr Githongo was very instrumental in that decision. Gradually, though, this early enthusiasm began to fade when he saw no follow-up to his confidential weekly briefings to the Head of State.

"The faces fighting him thought of him as a loose cannon," explained a former colleague. "They had wanted somebody pliable, a kind of PR guy, then he turned out to be actually zealous against things like Anglo-Leasing. They thought he was being naive." Quite true, it transpires many people would have preferred he confined himself to Moi-era scams like Goldenberg rather than disturb what he liked to describe as "emerging corruption networks."

The kind of forces Mr Githongo was up against can be imagined if an alleged trip to the Seychelles over the 2003 Christmas period by a top official in government is, indeed, true. The diplomatic rumour mill has it that the Seychelles had been picked as a rendezvous for the supposed meeting between the official and a Cyprus-based wheeler-dealer involved in Kenyan security-related procurements and who is in the bad books of the British authorities.

And with the strong family ties, is inconceivable that Mr Githongo could be the victim of a life-threatening conspiracy, as some of his civil society friends insinuated last week. The Economist, in its latest edition, went as far as to say that Mr Githongo had opted to go into "exile." (Mr Githongo was once the Nairobi correspondent for the paper.)

His decision to resign from London, according to the friends, was because he feared for his life. But those better wired with him argue that he did not want a situation where he would have been heavily pressured by friends, family and top officials "to talk things out quietly with the President" before going public.

So what next? Interestingly, according to a family source, Mr Githongo has not totally cut links with President Kibaki. "John is keen to hear the Presidents response [to his resignation]. Either by a statement or an action. Depending on how this is, he would be very willing to come back and take up the job again."