Githongo at KCA awards, Washington DC

[job]

Folks,

The annual Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) awards ceremony at a downtown Washington DC hotel yesterday,..... was graced by former Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics John Githongo who befittingly received his first KCA award; for outstanding sacrifice in the war against corruption.

John Githongo is a burly gentleman for real, yet so soft spoken,..... quite a pleasant man. Besides his wonderful speech & Q& A session, I had a chance to have a brief tete-a-tete with him with regard to his sojourn at State House and his more recent post-Anglo Leasing endeavours in the UK.

Event attendance was modestly ok, with many Kenyan professionals coming from all ends of the vast diaspora. Some guests came all the way from Kenya, including the sitting Gem MP, Jakoyo Midiwo, a former Washington DC resident.

Needless to add, the newly posted Ambassador at Washington DC, Mr. Rateng Oginga Ogego, declined an offer to attend,...yaani an offer meet Kenyans,.....or let me put it this way, an offer to FACE KENYANS immediately after his premature diplomatic anti-Obama gaffe.

I'll detour a bit by saying something about this Ambassador fella. I guess the new diplomat opted to hole himself at the posh Potomac -Kenya House, in the leafy suburbs of Maryland. He sure needs some time off to reflect deeply on his diplomatic famble, before resumption of business tomorrow (Tuesday) after the long Labor day weekend (here in the US).

I understand this new Ambassador also choose not to go and meet Kenya's third seniormost State official, who had just arrived at a Washington DC Airport ( minutes away from the Embassy) with an entourage of Parliamentarians on committee duties.

Francis Ole Kaparo had to be met at the Airport instead, by the Deputy Ambassador. Mr. Ambassador must have been "too busy" to meet the ever smiling gentleman who controls our rogue Parliament quite effectively and efficiently. Was he too busy perusing the Kenyan media just in case he failed to pick up an Obama rebuttal,...in readiness to reload another filling of anti-Obama venom.

That's that. Back to the KCA day and Githongo. I was very impressed by the forthrightness, courage and resolve of this decent man of high integrity called John Githongo.

Well, Githongo insinuated something quite significant yesterday. He wondered aloud why there's all these talk about "people around the President" each time Anglo-leasing or other graft matters are raised. His big point was,......."nothing could be further from the truth". Anglo-Leasing is about the President,.....not people around the President, period.

If I'm not wrong, former Interior Minister, Chris Murungaru had earlier stated something close to that when he felt boxed in the anti-corruption corner. Murungaru was quickly left alone when he started 'talking too much".

The authority to sign multi-billion shilling worth security contracts rests only with the President, according to both Murungaru and Githongo. He must therefore be held directly accountable.

Githongo further renewed his accusation of the Kibaki government for failing to recover a whooping Sh 74 billion he says he established was stashed away in foreign banks by senior people in the present and former governments.

"Why haven't they brought back the Sh74 billion? They need to bring it back. He quipped softly.

But it was Githongo's suggestion that Kenya needs to immediately change it's Constitution to clip the President’s excessive and unnecessary executive powers that drew most applause.

“There is need to effect particular changes in the constitution of Kenya to ensure accountability on the part of the president and define his powers according to the law. You cannot win the war against corruption when somebody riding high on executive authority goes round the country dishing out national resources without accountability,” said Githongo.

He also told KCA members that he is ready and willing to appear before any tribunal in Kenya to defend his earth-shaking dossier on corruption, which ultimately led to the exit of Kiraitu, Mwiraria and Murungaru from the cabinet.

Githongo said he was prepared to face each and every cabinet minister he had named in his corruption report (& sworn affidavits) and simply repeated that he stood by what he told the world about corruption in Kibaki's government. He maintained his position that the individuals he named as perpetrators of graft were indeed the culprits together with the ultimate power that authorized the contract payments,......yaani the President.

Githongo talked about the scary and corrupt mafia-like activities in the Kibaki government and his subsequent isolation, and threats on his life. He almost insinuated he feared all these fellas including the President himself, who didn't seem to say anything to his face but kept sending strange emmisaries asking him to "go slow".

Must have been quite scary in those State House hallways.

Leaving grand corruption and looting aside,......on basic greed, he talked of many people in government including politicians who complained to him that the few known individuals who were involved in massive graft, were eating alone and not sparing crumbles to the juniors around them,........hence the nature of the quick revelations about their looting sprees.

Some people he interviewed told him that the Moi-era graft was "better" because whatever was stolen was trickled down to everybody. On the contrary, the Kibaki looters were said to be so gluttonous and naively in such hurry.

He also revealed about attempts to bribe him with a sh 10 million offer, which he turned down.

By the way he calls these mandarins wakoras "Sultans".

Well I guess it must have been quite scary to have Sultan Murungaru sending Sultan Kiraitu to ask Githongo to go slow, while Sultan Mwiraria is busy blackmailing Githongo's dad about a debt owed to Sultan Pereira.

Githongo is having fun in the UK and travels a lot in international anti-corruption circles. This is surely a man we need to help reform Kenya. It's a shame that we hound out our best and well-meaning citizens.

Finally, back to the Sultans in Kenya. I wish Sultan Ringera could hear and respond to Githongo. What about the Sultan at the hill, who authorizes all these shady deals, are you still with us Sultan Muthee?

unedited.
Job

[mossad]

Sultan Adongo

The only fault i hold aganist you is lack of informing us on time about Mr. Githongo's visit, i beleive i could have sacrifised my time here in NC and made that trip.
Anyway i think it' must have been an unforgettable experience speaking to someone like Githongo, what he did to our country really helped a lot of pple understand what kind of leaders they elected in the name of fighting corruption. Thanx for that summary anyway.

Mossad.

[job]

Mossad,

I will next time inform you of significant events in DC so you could bring all the Sultans of North Carolina. Githongo made the KCA event quite refreshing.

For correction, Adongo is further up North, in Canada.

Enjoy.

Job

[mossad]

Mr. Job

Thanx for the correction, both of you,Job and Adongo write quite similarly it's infact hard sometimes to distinguish who is who.


Mossad.

[politicalmaniac]

Job
Thanks for that piece.
Do you guys tape these events with Githongo? Wakina R, KM etc?
Put a 10min edited clip on youtube or a similar portal and let the world see and hear from the horse's mouth!
Its time this technology was used.

[job]

P/Maniac,

I believe there were some recordings done. I'll try to establish the trail of who has all these tapes. You are right, technology needs to be applied for better communication.

Job

[politicalmaniac]

Job
That will be great!

[job]

Some quotes from Githongo in Washington DC (source S. Maina)
***************************************************

"As would be expected...the articles in DN and Standard have not
done justice to Githongo by taking some of his words out of context,
and here I should be clear to dispel the myth you will
occasionally hear from the mouths of sycophants: that you have good leaders who
are misled by bad advisors. This is a lie. Bad leaders surround themselves with bad advisors!"


"As the saying goes, tell me with whom you are
and I shall tell you who you are. "


"Outside the intrigues of state power, the reforms of the multi-
party era have yielded a vibrant civil society and media, including groups
such as yourselves, whose engagement with affairs in Kenya is partly as a
result of the information age - much more informed, aggressive and
effective. Do not relent, you are already reforming Kenya"


" I am convinced that the grip on power by a few greedy old men who believe that
development merely means dishing out goodies to hungry tribes is ebbing, partly as a result of Kenyans' exhaustion with it"


"So I'd say, lets keep focused on constitutional reform, in
particular the diffusion of executive powers: otherwise whoever we
elect to the Presidency will still disappoint".


" Once again I thank you for the honour you have accorded me and for
inviting me to Washington for your annual gathering. It is not
only an honour but a true pleasure. Asante sana."

[politicalmaniac]

Job wapi video?

[adongo12345]

Pmaniac

This is the speech, well not exactly the video, but there we go.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Remarks by John Githongo

I WOULD LIKE to take this opportunity to thank the Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) for inviting me here today and also for honouring me with your annual KCA Excellence Award 2006. It is not my plan to speak for long and ruin this gracious dinner that you have organised as the culmination of your Annual Conference.

For me this honour is especially important because it is from Kenyans. You will allow me then to recount for you some events and thoughts that have ultimately brought us to this place.

By the end of August 2004 it had become clear to me that my time as an anti-corruption official in the Kenya Government was reaching a close. I remember asking a fellow official for his advise and he told me: number one, the eating is happening on at a rapid pace and there is nothing you can do about it; second, you are not going to stop this eating; three, prepare to be moved to the ministry of cooperatives or charged with one offence or the other; and, four, do nothing, just sit in your nice office and enjoy the chauffer-driven car and per diems and then things will be OK.

Maybe I should have listened.

If I had maybe I would not be outside the country I love and away from my family and experiencing some of the challenges I know some of you have faced here in the US being away from your home. My gratitude is to the many friends and supporters who have made things not only bearable but on occasion even productive over the last several months.

But on a more serious note: In December 2002 the opposition defeated KANU with a mandate whose scale indicated the determination of the Kenyan people for change. From the very start it was absolutely clear that this overwhelming demand for change was driven to considerable lengths by Kenyans’ exhaustion with the debilitating corruption of the previous regime. A large part of the new administration’s mandate rested on this anti-corruption platform.

I was subsequently deeply honoured when I was appointed to the Office of the President as Permanent Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics. I understood this to be partly an acceptance of the anti-corruption principle that corruption starts at the top and therefore the fight against it should start at the top – from the Office of the President. Given Kenya’s constitutional dispensation and historical experience in particular, I still believe this was the right thing to do. In hindsight things started to go wrong in concert with the unravelling of the constitutional reform process.

I believe the slippage in the overall reform programme most probably occurred because of the ruling elite’s determination to ensure that Presidential powers were not diffused by the new constitution which had been promised in the run-up to the elections. Ironically, opposition to this over concentration of power in the Executive had created the reputations of many of the administration’s most outstanding reformers. Breaking this promise ultimately caused the coalition to unravel. Once the choice with regard to constitutional powers had been made this meant reverting to type; turning NARC into a sort of reconditioned KANU which in turn meant the consolidation of power in the hands of a small elite. In reality this elite hailed from all over the country and was united by the fact that state power had made them rich and was now going to be used to make them richer. But in the eyes of the public, and understandably so, the overwhelming perception was that this group was essentially from one part of the country because its most unapologetic spokespersons were. So the myth of the Mount Kenya Mafia was born and it quickly became a reality.

In my opinion the setbacks in the fight against corruption were derived from making the choice not to devolve presidential powers as had been promised in the run up to the elections. Once this choice was made it had to be supported and the method of choice to consolidate this support was to buy it. So we had, and still have to this day, a situation where what we now defined as corruption is what was ostensibly being used to finance politics and to pay for the personal financial recovery of individuals who had nearly been bankrupted by a decade in the political opposition.

The mobilisation in defence of this system of managing power is done along ethnic lines which is unfortunate because it transforms what should be a strength – Kenya’s diversity – into a political weakness in the short term, and I stress it’s a short term problem. One of the unique things about America is the way it has created a system where diversity is a strength rather than a weakness and the thousands of tribes, nationalities and other identities that comprise it make it stronger instead of weaker. It is acknowledged that this is the result of struggle and events like Katrina showed that despite great advances the battle continues.

In truth my own experience is that diversity with regard to ethnicity or tribe do not in and of themselves mean much in a truly democratic system. We saw a glimpse of this in the way Kenyans voted in 2002: a vote for change that overtook the tribalisms and ethnicities that seem to inform so much of our political behaviour.

Its when power is concentrated in the presidency or in the executive generally that we find a situation where perceptions of ethnicised economic and political inequality becoming so powerful as to affect political behaviour. I am emphasising perceptions because in reality the elites that gang together to protect their interests are from all groups but it is extremely convenient for them to mobilise along ethnic lines at the grassroots. But in politics it is also true that perceptions quickly become realities that need to be addressed; or more often the difference between perception and reality becomes grey.

Over concentration of power in the presidency has meant for us in Kenya, a history of discriminative allocation of resources along ethnic lines and compounds perceptions of ethnicised inequality that has such an important effect on the conduct of politics and by extension economic performance. Indeed, when one takes even a cursory look at the data a pattern emerges of the apparent marginalisation of certain regions, and by extension certain ethnic groups. The power of this should not be underrated – the perceptions of ethnisised inequality: that a particular group or community is in the grip of a structural economic, political and social disadvantage that is contrived by a minority from one particular ethnic group. It leads to a situation where even when the economy is growing there are those who ask quietly and sometimes not so quietly: ‘it is growing for whom?’

The abuse of public office via egregious conflict of interest and grand corruption on the part by public officials perceived to be from one part of the country, accompanied by conspicuous consumption on their part, has in my opinion a disproportionate effect on political choices on the part of the population. This ‘corruption’ on the part of leaders and its assorted manifestations feeds ethnic resentment, compounds perceptions of ethnisised inequality and leads to policy choices that can undermine economic development in general.

In part, Kenya’s conundrum was an elite perceived to be from one part of the country who contrived a creative, arrogant and determined resistance to power diffusion via the constitutional reform process. The truth is that if you look at the elite that are coming together, they are from between the troops of the resistance movement against constitutional reform and are paid for by scams like Anglo Leasing. When that reality holds true anti-corruption work directly contradicts the key political imperatives driving those determined to hold onto the most unaccountable aspects of Executive authority.

I remember one forthright leader who came to me while I was government and told me to my face that his opposition to the Anglo Leasing deal was because he knew a few politicians were ‘eating’ by themselves and not sharing the goodies. He said that things were even better under Moi who at least shared the goodies. In a system where patronage dominates, resource allocation decisions will lead to these resentments, fed by the feeling of being left out as others eat.

The recognition of structural ethnic economic inequalities in Kenya, under a constitutional dispensation of true Presidential accountability, will remove the sting from the problem of graft in Kenya. Right now corruption rankles most in my opinion because not only is it happening, it seems to make only a small group of people rich and that small group of people seem to come predominately from one part of the country.

The principle of disadvantaged groups in a society; of affirmative action; of the better off providing for the lesser off has never been addressed directly and in a structured and transparent way. This would necessarily imply greater transparency in resource allocation and begin the breakdown of systems of patronage via which power is wielded.

My hope is that the principle of equity will inform the outcomes of the political debates that are underway; to frankly address the equity issues that we have tried to sometimes sweep under the political carpet. The issue of ethnicity and inequality is the monster in the room of Africa’s development, though we loathe admitting it. Perceptions of ethnisised inequality drive many important political choices making a mockery of even the best laid out policy initiatives – anti-corruption ones in particular.

In the meantime you will hear anti-corruption described as media-driven ‘political background noise’. But opinion polls consistently indicate the continuing seriousness with which Kenyans consider the issue of corruption despite everything. This background noise argument has turned even some donor representatives into sycophants for the state. I’m sure you all followed grimly the Armenian comedy that took place in the earlier part of this year and subsequently, matters that have come to light with regard to issues such as drug running and money laundering. That the Armenian comedy could continue for as long as it did is a measure of the high level support it enjoyed. And here I should be clear to dispel the myth you will occasionally here from the mouths of sycophants: that you have good leaders who are misled by bad advisors. This is a lie. Bad leaders surround themselves with bad advisors. As the saying goes, ‘tell me with whom you are and I shall tell you who you are.’

Outside the intrigues of state power the reforms of the multi-party era have yielded a vibrant civil society and media, including groups such as yourselves, whose engagement with affairs in Kenya is partly as a result of the information age - much more informed, aggressive and effective. I am convinced that the grip on power of a few greedy old men who believe that development merely means dishing out goodies to hungry tribes is ebbing partly as a result of Kenyans’ exhaustion with it.

So I’d say lets keep focussed on constitutional reform, in particular the diffusion of executive powers: otherwise whoever we elect to the Presidency will disappoint.

Once again I thank you for the honour you have accorded me and for inviting me to Washington for your annual gathering. It is not only an honour but a true pleasure. Asante sana.

[job]

P/maniac.

I have not yet managed to trace the whereabouts of the video recordings. I'll post the querry on other sites & get you a feedback as soon as any arrives. Try to send querries also to the other sites you belong in.

If anyone here at Jukwaa has any idea about the recordings,.....please let P/maniac know.

Adongo has infact presented here,........ Githongo's full speech. The only part missing is of-course the interactive question and answer session which expounded on other burning issues asked by concerned Kenyans.

As for the other political meetings in Washington DC, it may take time to establish who has any tapes since the people who record them mostly do so for personal/sentimental collections. A querry at the various online Kenyan sites could suffice in getting you one.

I'll ofcourse notify you as soon as I get a response.

Job

NB
( Unfortunately, I personally do not tape any of these events,.....there are too many events here in DC. Many friends I've enquired from also do not,.......but with time zitapatikana.)