John Githongo: The Son Of The President’s Bossom Buddy Who Ended Up “Dissapointing”

The main reason why president Kibaki chose John Githongo as his most trusted permanent secretary to be in charge of ethics and governance was for the simple reason that he knew his father very well and they have been bosom friends for years.

In his mind, Kibaki assumed that when push came to shove, he could easily contact John's father and have him talk to his son to take instructions without asking too many questions, and of course, accept to be manipulated by the ruling elite. In brief they would say of Githongo; "he is one of us."

Coupled with the fact that John had a solid reputation for being an anti-corruption crusader having worked for Transparency International, he was the perfect candidate for the job and the appointment pleased everybody including the so called development partners. (It was the sort of appointment made in heaven similar to that of Amos Wako to the post of AG by Moi in the 90s. Wako, once upon a time, had a solid international reputation. Look what Kenyan politics has done to him?).

What Kibaki failed to see in young John was the simple fact that the boy had become his own man and even invoking his fathers name could not cause him to waiver. Kiraitu Murungi was the first to try with disastrous results.

The fact that Githongo was relatively young, approaching his forties, and still single, the aged ruling elite never envisaged that 'the boy' could go against 'his fathers' but little did they know that young John cared less for African tradition and could never let it come between his job which he did with undivided dedication and diligence.

From the transcripts he recently released between him and former finance minister, its evident that the old guards in Kibaki's inner circle treated him the way they treat their teenage kids and one could not help noticing the patronizing tone of David Mwiraria and Kiraitu Murungi.

When the young Githongo became 'difficult' to deal with, the likes of Murungi got impatient with the 'boy' and even opted for blackmail in a bid to have their way which also failed miserably as Githongo recorded the conversations and later made them public.

What Githongo has done to the Kibaki administration has annoyed the ruling elites so much that Githongo's old job, PS in charge of governance and ethics was abolished and the state house office shut down.

The only remaining permanent secretary at state house is Stanley Murage who is in charge of research and policy analysis. He has been named in the Artur scandal where he supposedly introduced two international criminals posing as foreign investors to the president.

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