It's Our Turn to Eat

It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower by Michela Wrong, HarperCollins, 2009. 

Reporter on Government Corruption

The main topic of the book is the efforts of an honest man, journalist and government anti-corruption official named John Githongo to clean up corruption in the Kenyan government during the administration of president Mwai Kibaki, who was in office 2002-2013.

Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta was Kenya’s first president after independence (1963-1978). He was of Kikuyu ethnicity. His political party was the Kenyan African National Union. The Kenyan National African Union made up largely of Kikuyu and Luo.

Patronage

Patronage has been a major problem in Kenya after independence from the British. Whichever tribe wins the election gives out government jobs to members of its tribe. This is the meaning of the title, It’s Our Turn to Eat. The Kikuyu are farmers and held power under Jomo Kenyata and Mwai Kibaki. The Kalenjin are pastoralists and held power under Daniel arap Moi. Tribal education quotas intensified ethnic rivalries. Kenyan morality means that loyalty to one's tribe is more important than being honest.  

Kalenjin

Daniel Arap Moi, president during 1978-2002, was of Kalenjin ethnicity. He was the leader of the Kenyan African Democratic Union and presided over a Kalenjin-dominated administration. The Goldenberg scandal happened during his watch. Goldenberg International, Ltd. was headed by a Kenyan Asian named Kamlesh Pattni. The government paid for gold exports that never actually occurred. David Munyakei was the whistleblower for the Goldenberg scandal. In 1993 the Daily Nation published a series of articles about the Goldenberg scandal, after which David Munyakei was arrested and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act.

Kikuyu

Mwai Kibaki was in office 2002-2013 and was of Kikuyu ethnicity. Mwai Kibaki was the president under whom John Githongo served. John Githongo was newspaper columnist, who was appointed to be the permanent Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics (2003-2005). John was tasked with combatting government corruption. John was nominally hired to root out corruption, but persecuted when he actually tried to do so. 

John Githongo

The main scandal that John Githongo exposed to the public was the Anglo Leasing Scandal of the Mwai Kibaki (Kikuyu-dominated) administration that he was an official in. The Anglo Leasing and Finance Company, which did not actually exist, was awarded a huge contract by the Kenya government contract for passport printing.

Disloyalty

John Githongo was viewed by his fellow government officials as being disloyal to his own tribe, the Kikuyu, by ratting out those Kikuyu government officials that were on the take. He eventually had to flee Kenya to Great Britain in order to avoid being punished for his efforts. In Britain he became an academic at Oxford University. 

Foreign Tolerance of Corruption

Most of the blame for the continuing corruption of Kenyan government is not rightfully assigned to the Kenyans themselves, but rather to the rich Western governments, who continue to do business with corrupt Kenyan officials, and who refuse to use economic pressure to persuade Kenyans to reform. The Western governments and NGO’s measure their success by how much money they invest in Kenya, and not by whether these investments improve the quality of life of the Kenyan people. In modern parlance, this is called virtue signaling, that is, appearing to do good, without actually doing good. There are anti-corruption laws at the UN, UK and Kenya, but they are rarely enforced. They are for show, only.