It's Our Turn to Eat

by Wrong, Michela

• ISBN13: 9780061346583
• ISBN10: 0061346586
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-26
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

In January 2003, Kenya- seen as the most stable country in Africa- was hailed as a model of democracy after the peaceful election of its new president, Mwai Kibaki. By appointing respected longtime reformer John Githongo as anticorruption czar, the new Kikuyu government signaled its determination to end the corrupt practices that had tainted the previous regime. Yet only two years later, Githongo himself was on the run, having discovered that the new administration was ruthlessly pillaging public funds."Under former President Moi, his Kalenjin tribesmen ate. Now it's our turn to eat," politicians and civil servants close to the president told Githongo. As a member of the government and the president's own Kikuyu tribe, Githongo was expected to cooperate. But he refused to be bound by ethnic loyalty. Githongo had secretly compiled evidence of official malfeasance and, at great personal risk, made the painful choice to go public. The result was Kenya's version of Watergate. Michela Wrong's account of how a pillar of the establishment turned whistle-blower, becoming simultaneously one of the most hated and admired men in Kenya, grips like a political thriller. At the same time, by exploring the factors that continue to blight Africa-ethnic favoritism, government corruption, and the smug complacency of Western donor nations- It's Our Turn to Eat probes the very roots of the continent's predicament. It is a story that no one concerned with our global future can afford to miss.

Table of Contents

Map	p. vii
Prologue	p. xi
The Big Man	p. 1
An Unexpected Guest	p. 21
Starting Afresh	p. 33
Mucking out the Augean Stables	p. 41
Dazzled by the Light	p. 65
Pulling the Serpent's Tail	p. 77
The Call of the Tribe	p. 99
Breaking the Mould	p. 121
The Making of the Sheng Generation	p. 145
Everything Depends on the Boss	p. 163
Gorging Their Fill	p. 183
A Form of Mourning	p. 205
In Exile	p. 227
Spilling the Beans	p. 247
Backlash	p. 255
A Plaza Paradise	p. 279
It's Not Your Turn	p. 295
Epilogue	p. 317
List of Key Characters	p. 336
Glossary	p. 337
Acknowledgements	p. 339
Notes	p. 341
Index	p. 345
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