The board of directors of a designated anti-corruption organization was found to be corrupt itself – it’s Kenya! – and two integre and intrepid CEOs were in sequence hounded out of their office by the corrupt board, first Gladwell Otieno, then Mwalimu Mati. Neither of them, however, has forsaken the fight for integrity which TI Kenya did no longer tolerate; instead they now both continue their work outside, in their own organizations.

However, the eventual – late and indeed belated – reaction of the International Secretariat in Berlin intervened in the end, the former Kenyan chapter’s membership in the International Transparency organization was suspended, the compromised board of directors was forced to resign, an audit by two non-Kenyan experts was ordered and conducted, and the former Kenyan TI chapter, ad interim steered by Richard Leakey, now tries to rehabilitate itself.

Sincely it is commonly – though not universally – accepted that everybody deserves a second chance, TI Kenya might as well strive to rebuild its shattered image, its discredited and disparaged reputation. The press should accompany this process and report on it, critically but fairly, while the international TI family watches on.

Now after this introduction, here is the communiqué which KenyaImagine quickly received from the International Secretariat of TI (Regional Director for Africa Mr. Casey Kelso), in response to our inquiry into the present state of affairs: 

From: Casey Kelso [mailto: ckelso -@- transparency.org]

Subject: Inquiry about Kenyan part of 2007 Global Report

Thank you for your e-mail, and for your coverage of the Global Corruption Report 2007. As well as prioritising the placing articles and analysis about judicial corruption in international news outlets, we see specialised websites and blogs as an important means of raising awareness and galvanizing action against corruption. So we appreciate.

I disagree with your assertion that TI Kenya is a "deeply corrupted and thoroughly discredited institution". I was forwarded your second question regarding TI Kenya: "What has the Central Secretariat in Berlin done to fight and curb corruption within the Kenyan TI Chapter?"

The first observation is that, unlike Amnesty International or Save the Children, Transparency International is a federation of autonomous chapters. Peter Eigen set up Transparency International after conferring with Ian Martin, the former Secretary-General of Amnesty, about how to make sure there was not too strong a dependence upon a central international headquarters. Therefore, the troubling events within TI Kenya in 2005 and 2006 was not so much due to the "connivance or neglect" of a Berlin-based outside staff member, but more to local dynamics in Kenya. What dynamics?

We see special problems around the role of civil society organisations under a new government, which has come to power on an anti-corruption platform. There's a challenge of taking a distance from former colleagues and friends with whom one was formerly united in opposition
to the old authorities. Ironically, Transparency International recognised this challenge back in 2004 at a major conference held in Kenya. There are two excellent research papers, here and here , on Kenya associated with that conference that anticipated difficulties for the chapter in finding a critical distance...

So at our international secretariat, which has two staff members devoted to supporting African chapters (in contrast to some 10 staff members at the chapter), we are loathe to step into internal controversies in a chapter unless it is clear there are major governance problems that cannot be solved by the local board. In this case, indeed, there were issues that arose around allegations of conflict of interest, financial irregularities and personal misconduct that prompted the international movement to act.

So the second observation is that when we stepped in, it was on the basis of helping the Kenyan chapter sort out the best way to resolve its issues. In this case, we supported the chapter's efforts to reorganise by hiring a management consultant who helped them develop membership guidelines, financial protocols and facilitated a new Steering Committee that took over day to day management of the chapter.

We also underwrote costs of the recruitment search for a new Executive Director, as well as a legal study to understand better how best to legally constitute an NGO in Kenya to be as open as possible to new members while avoiding our organisation being vulnerable to government
interference under the NGO act. But the board of TI Kenya had to take the hard decisions to reorganise -- with this support -- and they did.

I'm proud of the new start that the chapter has made. Throughout the internal crisis at its board level, the staff that works there has continued to produce strong and credible anti-corruption activities, such as the Sheng campaign for youth to campaign against corruption, as well as an insightful analysis on access to information issues. In a short while, the chapters will publish its Kenya Bribery Index that provides a sharp critique much more powerful than the international secretariat-produced Corruption Perception Index since the information comes from Kenyans and is analysed by Kenyans. Actions speak louder than
gossip. I'd ask you to judge the chapter by the quality of activities and information it puts out to the Kenyan people.

If you're interested and a Kenyan, I would invite you to contact the chapter and ask to join. One of the goals in the re-organisation of the chapter is to ensure that there is a wide membership that represents all of Kenyan society - and as such is safeguarded from being identified with any one segment of opinion.

I'll check with the general editor of our Global Corruption Report - Mr Dieter Zinnbauer - about your question on authorship not being identified.

I hope this helps clarify issues around TI Kenya. I copy in the chapter's deputy director, Lisa Karanja, for her information as well as the new TI - Secretariat program coordinator Job Ogonda.

Best wishes,

Casey Kelso

Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East

Transparency International - International Secretariat
Alt Moabit 96, D/10559 Berlin, Germany
Tel: 49-30-3438 2035, Fax: +49-30-3470 3912, -3438 2044
Website: http://www.transparency.org

As journalists, we might feel tempted to comment immediately; but we will rather at first leave the communiqué as it is. Maybe our readers will wish to ask or comment - please feel invited!