Activist and anti-graft crusader, John Githongo, was, on Friday, December 9 declared the winner of the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award 2022.
Githongo won the award in the category of lifetime or outstanding achievement and was feted for his work in fighting corruption and preserving the rule of law.
This was the 6th edition of His Highness’s Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award held in Doha, Qatar.
The Award is given in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which consists of a trophy and a financial prize.
Those who attended the award included; Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani and senior United Nations officials.
Githongo, an activist, is famous for whistle-blowing the Anglo-leasing Scandal that rocked the late President Mwai Kibaki’s 2004 government.
The Anglo Leasing affair involved contracts being awarded to phantom firms to supply the Kenyan government with a system to print new high-technology passports while other fictitious companies involved were given money to supply naval ships and forensic laboratories.
It was alleged that the atrocity began under the administration of late President Moi and continued under his successor Kibaki, who came to power in 2002 promising to crack down on the looting of public money.
Githongo is also the Founder-Executive Director of the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International established in 1999.
In January 2003, he was appointed the Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics by then President Mwai Kibaki, before he resigned in 2005.
Years later, in 2022, he defended former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, in the August 2022 presidential petition which was nullified by the Supreme Court.
Githongo has been accorded many accolades and recognition among them being selected as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential Africans by the London-based New African Magazine in 2011.
He also received the German-Afrika Prize for Leadership from the German President in 2004 and was further awarded the OXI Award by the Washington Oxi Day Foundation which marks heroism and the defence of freedom in 2013.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
