Corruption is at the heart of news from Kenya these days.  Last week, President Mwai Kibaki suspended eight senior officials for three months pending investigations into two corruption scandals.  In one, auditors from Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that over $26 million had been lost through a program to give impoverished Kenyans access to subsidized maize.  The second scandal, brought to light late last year, concerns the loss of more than one million dollars from the Ministry of Education during a short period.  In response, both the British and U.S. governments suspended millions of dollars in education assistance in December and January. 

Now Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Kibaki are at loggerheads over their respective authority to suspend senior officials in connection with the scandals.  In early 2008, the two men had joined together in a power-sharing coalition government following a disputed presidential election that resulted in over 1,000 deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.   One Kenyan newspaper identified the bloated 40-member cabinet as “one of the most highly paid group of advisers in the world,” with salaries alone costing taxpayers $1.5 million per month.  Annual per capita income in Kenya is less than $800.  

How can such damaging behavior come to pass?  Distinguished journalist and author Michela Wrong explores this question in her recent book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower.  Despite efforts to limit its circulation in Kenya, the book is having an impact on public discourse regarding corruption in the country.  The whistleblower is John Githongo, a prominent anticorruption activist appointed as Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics following Kibaki’s 2002 presidential victory.  Githongo’s frustrated efforts to investigate high-level corruption expose the factors that enable dishonest activities to flourish.  His story also highlights important lessons for how the international community and individuals can prevent corruption and its devastating effects.