It's our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower by Michela WrongThe Times review by Richard Dowden
From The Times
March 14, 2009
During the bloody mayhem that followed the stolen election in Kenya last year, radio and TV presenters persistently asked how this could happen in such a stable, peaceful country. They had clearly not read anything about Kenya except travel brochures. Even a cursory glance at the political reporting of Kenya would reveal a country where corruption and violence swirled just beneath a surface of tourist-friendly hotels and spectacular safari parks. The other side of the smiling welcome “Jambo” was theft on a huge scale and vicious state repression that had kept crooks in power since independence. Many who challenged them were murdered.
As long as no Western tourists were hurt, the disappearance of the odd Kenyan politician or human rights activist received no attention - until the beginning of last year, when a close-run election between two rival parties led to a war in which at least 1,500 people were killed. For years the elite had manipulated ethnicity to bolster its political support, deepening and embittering the rivalries between Kenya's 40-odd different peoples. In the election aftermath, when the presidency itself was at stake, those same politicians paid thugs to pick up guns, clubs and machetes, and Kenya was plunged into appalling tribal warfare.
It's Our Turn to Eat, Michela Wrong's third book on Africa, is a lively and detailed account of the looting of Kenya by its politicians as seen through the experiences of her friend John Githongo, the former journalist turned anti-corruption campaigner. The title refers to the Kenyan phrase for stealing government funds, heard after the election of Mwai Kibaki in 2002.
At the time it seemed to be the moment when the corrupt, worn-out regime of Daniel arap Moi had been replaced by a dynamic and clean coalition. Encouraged by Western donors, Kibaki appointed Githongo as anti-corruption czar. After Kibaki had a stroke in January 2003, however, fellow-Kikuyus in government began to gather power into their own hands and set up a scheme to filter millions of dollars out of the treasury into their own pockets. It was, as they said in private, “our turn to eat”.
Githongo, a vulnerable outsider among seasoned ministers and officials, secretly began to tape his conversations with them. They miscalculated Githongo, imagining that since he was young and, like them, Kikuyu, he would not rock the boat. He also miscalculated, thinking that he had the support of the President. In a dramatic climax he realises that Kibaki was backing the eaters, not the anti-corruption campaign. Githongo fled the country and hid first in Wrong's flat in North London and then at St Antony's College, Oxford. A few months later, the tapes transcribed, he announced the truth to the world.
It is a shocking tale told with verve and suspense, made even more shocking by the fact that only a couple of ministers resigned over the corruption scandal and none has been prosecuted. Even more shocking was the discovery that, although all this was well known to donor governments, Britain's Department for International Development (DfID), among others, tried to stop the British High Commissioner in Nairobi making speeches about corruption. Edward Clay, now famous for his “vomiting on the shoes of the donors” speeches, realised that DfID, the World Bank and other donors were determined to go on pouring money into the Kenyan treasury despite the widespread theft that was taking place. Even as the events recounted in this book unfolded, DfID expanded its programme in Kenya from £30 million a year to £50 million. The World Bank director, meanwhile, was renting a house from Kibaki.
The failure of the state to prosecute the thieves raises the question of whether it is self-reformable or whether something more drastic is needed to stop the looting. The tragedy of Kenya is that when the violence exploded last year, it was directed by - not at - the political thieves who had stripped the country of billions of dollars that should have been spent on repairing roads, building schools and providing healthcare. The war was not a battle for justice but a clash within the ruling elite about which ethnic group should “eat”. With Eastern countries unconcerned about human rights or democracy, and Western countries needing to dispose of huge aid budgets, the Kenyan people will get little support from outsiders for a revolution that is desperately needed.
Wrong's first two books, on Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, were a mix of reportage and history that allowed her to deploy her lofty, elegant and sarcastic style to hilarious and striking effect. She spots self-regard or hypocrisy a mile away. But writing about a close friend and his imagined feelings is more restricting. Melodrama does not suit her style, and although she bluntly points out Githongo's failings and mistakes, the reader is unclear whether she feels that his sacrifice was worthwhile. Perhaps Githongo, a brilliant and colourful writer, should have written his own story.
Richard Dowden is director of the Royal African Society. His book Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles is published by Portobello
It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower by Michela Wrong
Fourth Estate, £12.99 Buy the book
Article at: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article5900705.ece
