Berkley Center

John Githongo, Kenyan journalist, activist, politician, and public servant, was born in 1965. His current position is as head of Inuka Ni Sisi! (“Rise up, it is us!”), an NGO that works for citizen empowerment and good governance. Githongo worked as an investigative journalist and was the executive director of Transparency International, Kenya, from 1999 to 2003, and a member of the board of Transparency International. Under President Mwai Kibaki, he served as Permanent Secretary, Office of the President of Kenya in charge of Governance and Ethics. He left the government (and Kenya) in 2005, accusing several top ministers of fraud, and spent several years outside Kenya. Githongo studied economics and philosophy at the University of Wales. As a journalist he wrote for the East African and Executive magazine and was a correspondent for the The Economist. Since 2005 he has engaged in advocacy in Kenya and internationally and was a fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University.