)
At great personal risk, a number of brave Kenyans have come forth as whistleblowers, exposing scandals of monumental proportions and shaking corrupt enterprises.
Some, upon their earth-shaking discoveries were allegedly approached by powerful forces with financial offers to buy their silence but chose todo the right thing and turned down the offers, saving the country billions of shillings.
From Goldenberg to Anglo-leasing and more recent scandals, these patriotic Kenyans have played their part in shaping the country's history, emerging as fierce activists fighting corruption and pushing for greater transparency in government.
John Githongo
)
)
)
John Githongo is among the few who have lived through the experiences of a corruption tsar in the country, having exposed several scandals in government, key among them being the anglo-leasing scandal.
He gave his account of what went on in the nascent stages of the Narc government between 2003 and 2005 led by former President, the late Mwai Kibaki.
Githongo who founded the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International in 1999 and served as its first Executive Director was appointed the Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics by then President Mwai Kibaki in January 2003.
John Githongo
In this role, he gained unique insights into the operations of corrupt enterprise embedded within the government behind graft-linked incidences and malpractices.
Githongo would resign from government after just two years, claiming he had received death threats from government officials but not before collecting key information that would shake the corrupt enterprise to its core.
The leading anti-graft campaigner brought the $600 million Anglo-leasing scandal in which he implicated top government officials and fled to a self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom.
He has since returned to the country.
David Munyakei & the Goldenberg empire
Few see corruption of monumental proportions and do something about it, and David Munyakei is among the few Kenyans who altered the course of history by exposing one of the biggest large scale corruption scandals ever brought to light in the country.
Munyakei was serving as a clerk at the Central Bank when he came across documents that led him to unearth the Goldenber scandal involving false exports of gold that were made from Kenya.
Being a man of integrity and a patriotic Kenyan who meant well for the country, Munyakei brought the scandal to light at great personal risk and allegedly turned down financial offers from interested parties who sought to buy his silence.
His brave actions saw him turn into a marked man, targeted by the powerful forces involved.
Not long afterwards, he lost his job at the Central Bank of Kenya and had to relocate to the coastal region, while fearing for his life.
He succumbed to pneumonia in Narok in July 2006, unable to afford treatment or medication despite saving the country billions of shillings.
Nelson Amenya & the Adani deal
Nelson Amenya is widely regarding as a hero for exposing the botched Adani deal in which Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport would have slipped into the private hands of Adani for 30 years in a deal that was shrouded in secrecy and which many protested.
Nelson Amenya
Furnished with documents detailing the $2bn deal in which Adani was to lease JKIA for 30 years in order to modernise and run it, Amenya arrived at the conclusion that the deal would hurt the Kenyan economy and failed the test of transparency given its magnitude.
He leaked the details on social media, sparking a revolution that saw Kenyans embark on a mission to save the airport from slipping into private hands and calling for greater
The indictment of Gautam Adani for fraud in the United States sealed his fate with President William Ruto bowing to pressure and cancelling two deals (the $1.85B JKIA deal and a $736M deal to construct power lines) citing “new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations".
Andrew Kipkirui Rotich & the SHA fiasco
Social Health Authority has bee making headlines with reports of how rogue hospitals pocket millions by cooking up data without rendering any services.
Andrew Kipkirui Rotich, the deputy director in charge of risk assurance and forensic audit is the man creditted with unearthing that fake medical billing fraud in which rogue facilities have been swindling the authority.
Staying true to the ethics of his profession, values and conscience, Rotich exposed the fraudulent activities that have since seen a number of facilituies suspended with investigative agencies swinging into action.