The Sieve That Never Leaked East African Standard 08 February 2005 Page: 4
John Githongo is a big guy, built in the classical lines of the traditional weight lifter, heavy at the top and rather thin around the legs.
In the two years he has been the Permanent Secretary, Ethics and Governance, he had learnt to arrange his big face in an impassive mask, especially when fencing with the Press.
Journalists are attracted to Githongo like bees to honey: in his head are secrets to some of the hottest stories in town. At some point in their association, most journalists came to realise, like I did early on, that Githongo does not give information. When he does, it is with a team, including a lawyer from his office, present.
It has always amused me that in government, the former PS was regarded with suspicion with many of his enemies believing that he was feeding information to the media.
His closest friends in the media can attest to the fact that they are as ignorant of the specifics of the cases he was handling as the man on the moon.
On occasion I would swing by his modest house and we would sit, his eyes gleaming with amusement, quaffing huge amounts of tea from a mug (he is a teetotaler) and I with a bottle of single-malt whisky at my elbow and we would a fence a little, I fishing for a story, he skillfully parrying.
In all the time I have known him, Githongo has never given me any information, useful or otherwise. I don’t know any journalist that he has, though that did not stop a good part of the Government believing that he leaked like a sieve.
It is not surprising, either, that the Government had already started briefing sections of the media against him, accusing him of being the source of British High Commissioner Sir Edward Clay’s facts about high-level corruption.
Whereas Githongo quickly internalised the Government way of doing things, including the secrecy, he never allowed himself to be bludgeoned into the mode of the typical senior civil servant, frightened of associating with journalists or other "untouchables" so as not to be regarded with suspicion.
When I paid a call on Githongo at his Treasury office last year, I signed the visitor’s book. There was nothing furtive about our meeting, we chatted, had a cup of tea and I walked away, as usual, empty-handed. If Githongo was not a useful source for stories, he was an engaging and passionate speaker about corruption, its devastating effect on economies and what other countries were doing to fight it.
One always walked away from an encounter with him with the feeling that despite the problems, there was still commitment to the fight and something was being done.
If Githongo has a fault to my mind it is his obvious and high regard for the President and his determination to the fight against corruption. He has never for a moment doubted Kibaki or his commitment to the good fight. My suspicion is that Githongo was too generous with his trust. But he was a splendid servant of the people and what Prof Makau Mutua would call a "good Kenyan", and there aren’t too many of those around.
While his fellow PSs were gorging themselves on public funds, living in big houses and driving juggernauts, Githongo and a few other reformist civil servants lived modestly, and worked on behalf on the people of Kenya against the massed ranks of the Narc corruption brigade. The big man’s exit is a great triumph for those ranks and a terrible blow for the rest of us