Arise Githongo and run for president in 2012

He is a mountain of a man, easily recognisable in any part of Kenya. Soft spoken, but inquisitive to a fault, John Githongo is parts Sherlock Holmes, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Einstein all rolled into one.

He is the quintessential investigator, the prince of peace, and the consummate intellectual. He is deeply introverted and avant garde. For a big fella with political ambitions, he is awfully shy and self-effacing.

In spite of his size, is he a minnow in the shark-infested waters of Kenyan politics? That’s what we are about to find out because my crystal ball tells me that Mr Githongo should mull a run for the State House in 2012. If not now, when? If not him, who?

Mr Githongo burst into the national scene in 2003 after Narc came to power and President Mwai Kibaki named him the anti-corruption czar.
He was immediately dubbed Mr Clean by the press.

He quickly turned into a sleuth against those in the inner sanctum of power.

Massive fraud
To be fair, that was precisely his job description. I guess what he – and we – didn’t know was that he wasn’t supposed to take his job seriously. But he did, and the rest is history.

He went on to expose Anglo Leasing, one of the most massive frauds in the nation’s history.

The price for being a whistleblower was exile. He took one on the chin for the country. Unlike others in the high councils of state, he gave up huge perquisites to keep his conscience.

The measure of a man is taken when the going is the hardest. That’s when a person’s real character comes through. Mr Kibaki had picked Mr Githongo not because he thought the civil society activist would root out corruption.

It was because Mr Githongo was an “insider” – a House of Mumbi prince who could be trusted to keep the secrets in-house.

Mr Kibaki also knew that Mr Githongo was the perfect foil. He brought his impeccable credentials within civil society as head of Transparency International and unimpeachable credibility with donors. Mr Kibaki must have pinched himself everyday unable to believe his luck.

But he was dead wrong about Mr Githongo because the “lad” would not be a dupe. For Mr Githongo, Kenya was greater than the self-declared guardians of the House of Mumbi.

Foreign powers
But once Mr Githongo exposed Anglo Leasing, he became a “traitor”. He was a “traitor” to the House of Mumbi and his country. It was suggested that he was a spy for foreign powers.

Scurrilous attacks were launched against him in the gutter press and on the web. Mr Githongo took all of it in good humour. He was unshaken.
He returned to Kenya and picked up where he had left, except this time he took it up a notch.

He has visited many parts of the country. He has listened to the hoi polloi. I believe the tour has given him a solid sense of what ails the country.
What is he going to do with the treasure troves of information that he has collected?

Is he going to throw his hat in the ring, or sit out 2012?

I think he should contest for the presidency, and this is why. It’s true that he is a Kikuyu and that may rule him out. But perhaps the electorate would be sophisticated enough to know that there are Kikuyus and then there are “Kikuyus”.

In other words, Mr Githongo might be the “right” son of Mumbi. I mean that he is so different from a cabal of selfish tribal leaders that the sins of his fathers should not be visited on him.

He has repudiated that cabal. That cabal has in turn disowned him. My point is that it’s unfair to reject him because of his mere genetic fingerprint. Nothing he has done – in both his public and private lives – suggests that he thinks of himself as a Kikuyu chauvinist.

If anything, everything points to his global citizenship. No one can accuse him of native parochialism.

Mr Githongo should run for office because Kenya needs the likes of him – young, educated, clean, reformist and global. He eschews domination in all its forms and believes that each and every one of us has greatness within.

He would usher in a generational shift in our politics and lead a cultural renaissance in our national psyche.

Although he was born to privilege, he has an uncanny ability to connect with the common mwanachi, something that he did with ease as a journalist even before joining civil society.

His stint in exile seemed to have hardened his belief that Kenya’s prosperity lies in figuring out how the sum of its parts can live together in equity.

New blood
But can he raise the money necessary for a serious run at the State House? Or is there an army of volunteers willing to work for a cause?
Kenyans say during every election cycle that they want new blood in politics.

But they elect the same crooks back into office each time. Civil society doyens wring their hands about a new breed of politicians. But they do nothing about it.

When is this cycle of futility going to be broken? Mr Githongo, will you step forward and be the first among the bona fide civil society actors to walk through the door? Will you come out of the shadows and lead a renaissance?

I promise you that hundreds of thousands – may be millions – of young Kenyans will rally to your side if you step up.

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.