Kenyan Corruption Whistleblower Urges Amnesty

A former Kenyan government official who exposed a corruption scam involving millions of dollars in public funds and fled to exile now wants the government offer amnesty to corrupt individuals who return their stolen wealth. John Githongo, who was a top level anti-corruption advisor to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, returned to the country Tuesday after three years of self-exile in Britain and told a civil society forum that amnesty was the most practical way to reclaim illegally appropriated wealth as prosecutions typically caused delays. In 2005, Githongo implicated several government ministers in the “Anglo Leasing Scandal”, in which millions of dollars were siphoned from Kenya’s treasury in a series of shadowy dealings involving overseas firms. [PE]