It didn't take long for Githongo to realize that his trust in Mr. Kibaki was misplaced. Many of Githongo's investigations led to fellow cabinet members, who appeared to be acting with the tacit knowledge of Kibaki himself. Githongo pressed on, leaking information to the press about a contract to a fictitious company called "Anglo Leasing." Anglo Leasing was a mere $54 million scam, but it was part of a larger pattern of fictitious procurements by Kibaki government ministers that added up to $655 million.
Soon afterward, Githongo began to secretly tape conversations with officials, and to ship those tapes out of the country. Eventually, persistent death threats forced Githongo to flee the country for London.
"People already knew a lot of the stuff that was in the book," says Githongo, "but it is because we put it together into a chronological order, with the background and the conversations of the people involved" that it has had such an effect.
The current government of national unity – a compromise coalition formed between Kibaki's Party of National Unity and Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement after months of postelection violence – has let the country down, Githongo says.
Greed, he says, brought Kenya's politicians close to civil war, since they were willing to unleash ethnic violence to be able to control the Kenyan government, which forms the bulk of Kenya's economy.
"Corruption is the glue that holds it all together," says Githongo, who returned to Kenya last year. But greed may also bring this government down, as the anger of ordinary Kenyans and the courage of civic-minded groups and churches grows to confront politicians.
"I think the system is folding in on itself," Githongo says. Older corrupt politicians will die off, he says, and a growing urbanization of Kenyan society will weaken the tribal ties that give Kenya's traditional politicians their power. "Change will not be neat. But change will come."
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