Kenyan Pundit

Hot on the heels of the Kroll Report, Wikileaks has now leaked documents related to the Charterhouse saga.

Charterhouse is still under statutory management, while the CBK investigates allegations of money laundering among other things. Three of the whistle blowers who first broke the story are now in exile after receiving death threats.

Unlike the leak of the Kroll report by Wikileaks, which received extensive local coverage by the media, the release of the Charterhouse documents has been given a blackout by local media (who incidentally have also been covering the KACC bill extensively) and has only been picked up by Kenyan bloggers. Makes one wonder whether there is self-censorship going with the media, and if so then how powerful are the people behind Charterhouse?

Then, there is the “so what” question. Kroll leaked…so what? Charterhouse leaked…so what? The government is not bothered (see sidebar for stories on the government’s reacion), and parliament continues to exceed its capacity for dithering by letting corruption suspects off the hook.

My two cents, there’s a lot of reason for us to get apathetic about grand corruption in Kenya since our outrage doesn’t seem to be having an effect, but I don’t think people should give up. Sustained pressure on the government can have an effect - take the Media Bill as a case in point - if the Kenyan media could extend their activism beyond issues that are of self-interest to issues that are of national interest who knows what could happen. Also, at least we are now getting to find out about corruption almost on a breaking news basis, rather than 5-6 years later in cases like Goldenberg. Still those are crumbs…we need to see people in jail, money repatriated etc.

And, I wish I could believe the ODM rhetoric . Nairobi gossip has it that moneyed folks (and not to pinpoint, but Asian business people especially) who are generally believed to be pro-Kibaki because of how well the economy is doing, are actually supporting ODM because of how tightly they are being squeezed by KRA (which is also viewed as a Kikuyu outfit). All those tax evaders and people who survived on “deals” during the Moi years are having it rough…for instance it’s now quite pleasant doing business with government for a number of reasons - you don’t require a middleman to get the tender (generally) and you get paid. So they are betting that bringing ODM into government will be good for tax evasion and shady business. And these are serious guys I’m talking about. There’s lots of strange bedfellows in Kenyan politics right now…very surprising to me that ODM is being supported by poor people who feel that they’ve been locked out by the Kibaki govt and rich people who feel that they’ve been locked out by the Kibaki govt.

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I’m a bit late to this story…got the link two days ago but didn’t have a chance to blog (hat tip Banks) Kroll Report on grand corruuption under Moi is leaked on Wikileaks (click for all the gory details).

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Still no good connectivity at home so the hiatus continues. Gabriella is also decidedly nocturnal for now so keeping watchie hours. Will try and post pics soon and one of these days do proper posts on motherhood.

In the meantime, please check out these two excellent reports on local corruption scandals - Anglo Leasing Pt II. and at Posta compiled by Mwalimu Mati (formerly of TI et. al) at Mars Group. I love seeing local organizations taking advantage of the internet to get the word out, hopefully other local organizations with good data will follow suit instead of letting reports rot in their offices without seeing the light of day.

AOB: Did Githongo ever relaunch his blog?

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So John Githongo decided to make his latest revelations on Anglo-Leasing via his blog. There’s a whole lot the typical smoke and mirrors from the government combined with the sensationalism from the local media that has become par for course with the Anglo-Leasing story. I am going to focus on something that struck me as more blogworthy - he has a blog!

The good: Choosing to release the tapes via a blog (embracing new media etc.), which makes it more accessible…at least to anyone with internet access.

The bad: The site went down within a few hours and is still down over 24 hours later. You want to tell me that Githongo didn’t expect high traffic to the site (what was the point of putting it online then?)? Very amateurish…I would have expected more from someone who’s had a lot of time at Oxford to contemplate various ways he can cause an effective stink.

The ugly: Blogspot? Calling the blog “The Facts”? Honestly. It sucks. No intro, no background, no context, nothing. Just a link to the audio, that is now dead. I’m having flashbacks of Parliament’s website….uggh.

An aside: Maybe he should just send stuff to Mzalendo and KBW and we can spruce it up for him. It pains me to see people who should know better sitting with so much good info. (e.g. hello where is Gladwell Otieno?).

And on that note kudos to Mwalimu Matu and co. for speaking out and using their insider knowledge to try and comprehensively inform the public about the shenanigans of the government’s the “war against corruption” (link is a must visit).

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You read about the release of the land grabbing report in the newspapers yesterday, now get a full copy of the report here - Unjust Enrichment: The making of land grabbing millionaires

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