Kenya's top antigraft official resigns

NAIROBI -- Kenya's top anticorruption official quit yesterday, dealing the biggest blow so far to President Mwai Kibaki's election pledge to root out public corruption hobbling East Africa's largest economy.

In a statement, John Githongo gave no reason for his decision, saying only that he ''was no longer able to continue serving the government of Kenya."

Kibaki accepted the resignation of Githongo, who was Kenya's first presidential anticorruption adviser and the widely respected public face of the country's corruption battle.

His surprise exit is a damaging development for the beleaguered graft war in Kenya, which is consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world by international organizations.

Britain's ambassador to Kenya, High Commissioner Edward Clay, sparked a furor Wednesday when he reiterated his criticism that the government is too tolerant of ''massive looting" of public funds.

Diplomats estimate graft has cost Kenya $1 billion in the last three years, or nearly a fifth of the 2004-2005 state budget spending of $5.5 billion.

Githongo, who is traveling in London, could not be reached for comment, but friends said he has increasingly become frustrated with a lack of government cooperation.

Gladwell Otieno, who replaced Githongo as head of anticorruption watchdog Transparency International's Nairobi office, said his departure was no surprise and ''a blow for the hopes of Kenyans."

''If he has quit it is because there is nothing that can be done about corruption. Obviously, it has become apparent to him that there is no political commitment in the fight against corruption that would make a difference," Otieno said.

Githongo's departure will leave ''a large hole" in Kenya's antigraft apparatus, Clay told a private-sector audience in a speech yesterday.

''Personally, I esteem John Githongo as a person of integrity, courage, and principle. He was intensely committed to the patriotic task of clearing corruption out of government, as a service he could perform to the people of Kenya," Clay said.

A former journalist, Githongo was appointed in January 2003 in one of Kibaki's first tangible moves to make good on anticorruption election pledges that helped put his government in power in 2002.

Corruption characterized the 24-year rule of Kibaki's predecessor, Daniel arap Moi, and led international donors to suspend aid completely for three years.

Donors resumed lending only in November 2003 after Kibaki put several promised reforms into place. But they have increasingly complained that the government has done too little to stamp out corruption, especially at the highest levels. And they have warned that Kenya risks losing vital aid unless things change.

Transparency International ranks Kenya near the bottom in a 2003 survey of investor perceptions of corruption, placing it at 122 out of 133 countries.

Sources close to Githongo said his resignation was unrelated to the uproar prompted by Clay's speech at a journalism awards dinner in Nairobi last week.

At that event the ambassador said current officials and foreign associates of the Moi-era government were engaging in ''massive looting and/or grand corruption, which in toto has a huge impact on Kenya's economy."