I have attempted to put together a brief biography of the man of the moment for critical analysis by Kenyans. We hope that the gaps left out will be filled with time.
John Githongo was born in 1966 barely 3 years into Kenya's independence. The bitter political struggle between the get-rich-quick kitchen cabinet crowd surrounding President Jomo Kenyatta and politicians who still believed in the dream of the independence struggle like Tom Mboya had already started taking shape. The first Anglo-leasing-like deals had already been done and sealed.
Interestingly John Githongo's own father was soon to join the Kenyatta government and end up as a long serving PS (Permanent Secretary).
St Mary's Years
The most fascinating thing about Githongo's life is how despite his privileged upbringing going to school with the sons of the high and mighty in Kenya at St Mary's School, he still managed to keep his feet firmly on the ground.
St Marys was the school where the children of all prominent Kenyans went. Fellow students at about the same time were Uhuru Kenyatta (the current leader of the official opposition), former President Moi's sons, and the Kibaki children.
With his burly figure that brought him out as much older than his true years, classmates whose average weight and size was smaller, quite often made fun of him. Young Githongo did not particularly excel at anything. He did not become exceptionally good at games like rugby which were particularly popular at the school and where his built would have come in rather handy. And neither was he exceptional in his academics.
John Githongo's Comic Book Idea
One thing however clearly occupied young John Githongo's mind in his last years of high school. It was the publishing business.
In 1985 I had started an entertainment fortnightly called After Hours. Githongo heard about it and came to me with a grand idea of starting a popular comic book periodical. The world loves a story and with the masses of Kenya being quite often criticized as poor readers the idea was to produce movies on paper that they could relate to.
Personally I thought the idea was brilliant. A few weeks after we first met (I don't remember if we were introduced by a mutual friend, or he simply introduced himself), Githongo showed me some pages of his proposed comic book. He wasn't the artist, he explained, he just wrote the story and somebody else did the art.
Some 3 years later a popular men's magazine called Men Only would burst onto the scene in Nairobi with a very similar concept and equally similar deft art work in its' approach to the several pages of each issue that it devoted to picture stories. Well know local artists like Paul Kelemba (Maddo) were to emerge from that time. It was people like Kelemba who were to later break new ground in political commentary cartoons in Kenya with the Daily Nation.
Then our lives quickly moved in different directions and we lost contact. I was to learn later than he never really launched his pet publishing idea, probably because he was not able to identify a willing financier for the project. In the mean time he left for the UK where he studied Economics and Philosophy at the University of Wales.
The Executive Magazine Years
The next time Githongo reappeared in my life he was working for a well-known Business monthly, Executive Magazine. Strangely enough we never bumped into each other again despite the fact that I was then editor of a regional business monthly called Business Trend Review which covered a lot of similar ground.
At Executive Magazine Githongo got an opportunity to interview President Yoweri Museveni in State House Entebbe. His questions were carefully crafted but you could see the failed attempt to delve deeper into his subject. I enjoyed reading the interview remembering the man as the prospective comic book publisher who was now getting very seriously into business and regional political writing.
The EastAfrican Columnist
I believe that the Museveni interview was the sort of work that attracted the attention of the revolutionary founding editor of the EastAfrican, Joseph Odindo. The regional weekly newspaper was launched by the Nation media group in the mid-1980s. Githongo started off as one of the main columnists at the newspaper, commenting on a wide range of issues in Kenya as his two other columnist colleagues did the same for the other East African countries of Uganda and Tanzania.
There is no doubt that Odindo is one of the most gifted newspaper editors in East and Central Africa today. His work and ideas have come to the forefront in recent years as he has transformed the Daily Nation from a boring tired newspaper virtually stuck in a time warp, to the sort of vibrant human interest modern newspaper that is fitting increasingly well besides the increasing power of TV and the Internet in Africa.
Githongo greatly benefited from working under Odindo and I have no doubt on my mind that this period in his life greatly influenced his current thinking. Kenyan journalism is full of colorful selfless characters who have given their entire lives to practice a profession they love - journalism and writing in a rather harsh environment where it has not always been easy to write about most political subjects. Many of these characters have little to show for their years of devotion and dedication. In the West some of them would be celebrities. In Africa that time has not yet come.
I followed Githongo's columns in the EastAfrican closely, (many of them are indexed online as the EastAfrican is also partly available on the World Wude Web). I watched as he developed from a hesitant columnist trying to swim in a pool that seemed too large and too deep for him, to an authoritative and captivating columnist.
He quickly found a pet subject in the rather sensitive topic of corruption and now he seems set to make a career out of it.
This is a personal recollection than a bio. The writer doesnt mention that Githongo was reserve oficer in the Kenya Police. Nor does he mention Githongo wrote and I believe still writes for The Economist. The bio seems to have been written before Githongo became the first director of Transparency International (Kenya chapter), was appointed PS, Ethics and governance, resigned from the position and is now a fellow at Oxford University (UK) where he is living in self-exile.
ReplyDeleteGithongo too is a devout Roman Catholic and still single
ReplyDeleteThank you for helping to turn this from a "personal recollection" to more of a short bio.
ReplyDeleteAny other readers out there with some accurate information that we can fill in further? For instance, any old schoolmates from St Mary's for example?
John was my best friend for 6 years and I'd would never forget him even if he was not known to anyone other than his family and friends. I think the journalist Mikela Wong is working on a biography now. Just talk to him if you want to know his story -- he is approachable, humble, and while more of a listener than a talker, always willing to answer questions in person or on the phone.
ReplyDeleteHis dad helped found transparency international and so that role evolved over time. Once an established journalist in the field of economics and politics, he took on more of a role in TI (they wanted him to do even more).
His dad also founded an accounting firm (the first African firm in Nairobi) and John was under intense pressure to become head of the firm. He resisted family pressure to pursue creative work with a focus on politics and media.
He is extremely creative, a writer, an artist, interested in all forms of media, always tries to do the right thing and do best for Kenya. He's a workaholic because he gets so involved in whatever he is doing, moral but not overly religious, and if he's not married by now, it's because of circumstances I would guess.
While at the East African he worked with a guy named John Fox on development communication--consulting for donors - Intermedia I think it was called. He did a lot of projects there that I don't know too much about.
Ali (whose last name I forget, but the recent or present editor of the Nation) is or was one of his best friends for many years. Ali is a writing buddy as well as a friend (Ali is from India, married to a Ugandan woman if I remember correctly, he has a wicked sense of humor that John enjoyed).
In the mid-1990s he started his own firm, officially for profit but more of a non-profit --- a vehicle to do what he liked, called ASRI - African Strategic Research Institute. He worked with and for mostly African academics and writers on political and social topics, as did the others involved in this organization, with consulting for donors on the side. His role as reporter grew (economist,financial times) as did his role in TI, in those years.
Social pressure put him in the spotlight and the government. And Oxford and Paul Collier offered an escape from death threats and a chance to try to change from outside the borders (as inside proved so futile).
I'm sure he'll be back to Kenya as soon as it is clear he can be effective there.
He has many projects that he has pursued over much of life that I can only hope are being carried on from abroad. To record elders, promote writers, write novels, plays and movies....he enjoys observing politics, listening to people's stories, and is one of the kindest people I've ever known.