'Corruption has to be confronted from the grassroots'

"Corruption cannot be tackled from the top, it has to be confronted from the grassroots," so says John Githongo, a man who knows what he's talking about. In 2005 he resigned his senior position in the Kenyan government fighting corruption and went into exile in London after he believed his life was in danger. Such was his reputation that donors cut aid to Kenya, and the reputation of President Mwai Kibaki's government was seriously damaged.

Six years on and Githongo is still as passionately committed to the battle against corruption in Kenya as ever, but now his energies are taken up by building grassroots organisations to challenge the political system rather than working from inside government. After several years in exile, he is back in Kenya and has just launched a new campaign Ni Sisi Kenya (Ni sisi means "it is us").

This week Githongo was in London giving evidence to the parliamentary international development committee in his other role as a commissioner on the Independent Commission for Aid Impact – the new body set up by Andrew Mitchell, the UK development secretary, which will be unveiling its plan of work next Thursday. His appointment on the commission is testimony to Githongo's credibility as one of Africa's most dogged critics of corruption; his experiences since his return to Kenya in 2008 have deepened his analysis of the causes and consequences of poor governance across the continent.

"The biggest problem in Kenya – and across sub-Saharan Africa – is not poverty but inequality. Many African countries are growing at rates of 7%-8% a year, but this is destabilising if it is not accompanied by equity. In highly heterogeneous societies, structural inequality is easier to politicise, and you do that by ethnicising it – as happened in Kenya in 2008. And then you militarise these conflicts using party youth militias.

"That combination fundamentally undermines democracy because it leads to mobilisation along ethnic lines, and that becomes toxic. You can blame an entire group for your woes."

Githongo argues that the single biggest challenge in development is ensuring security for the poor. Without security, investment in health and education is wasted. The social enterprise he set up in 2008, the Inuka Kenya Trust, works across the country with local partners to initiate schemes to build security. But what constantly threatens security is the destabilising impact of inequality.

"We have a model of economic management across the world in which entire sections of the population are being left behind. The proportion living in poverty in Kenya is increasing despite a growing economy," says Githongo.

But the country's ability to tackle inequality is crippled by corruption. Githongo quotes estimates that a third of the Kenyan government revenue is siphoned away into private bank accounts. It is only a mass grassroots campaign that can challenge such an entrenched system, believes Githongo as he reflects on his efforts when he was appointed to a high-level cabinet post by Kibaki to root out corruption.

"Ordinary people have to fight corruption that they see in their daily lives. It has to be a mass movement, said the first African appointed to tackle corruption, Justice Joseph Sinde Warioba, in Tanzania, and he was right.'

According to Githongo's analysis, in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a significant escalation of corruption when multiparty elections were brought in, and it led to political turmoil – and civil war in at least six countries. Whereas in authoritarian regimes corruption had been used to entrench patronage systems, they were at least stable; in the democracies that emerged in Africa in the early 90s, it triggered a scramble for resources with which to fight elections. It's been estimated that 10% of Kenya's tax base ($1bn) was extracted to fight the 1992 election.

But Githongo is hopeful. "The political narrative is changing – and we have seen that across the Arab world where human development indicators have been steadily improving in the last decade – but a new generation was frustrated by inequality and corruption. The system of governance had not kept up.

"In sub-Saharan Africa we also see a new generation, and they have new forms of communication with mobile, radio and the internet. Sixty per cent of the Kenyan population is under 18; at the next election, there will be 6 million new voters. The state cannot control communications as it did in the past."

Unemployment is a massive issue for this new generation, argues Githongo, and one of the projects run by Inuka Kenya Trust takes youngsters and gives them enterprise training and education in "basic life skills".

"Their socialisation process has not involved trust, so we take them out of their comfort zone to build trust. They go on boot camps in the wild, camping."

The young men live alongside those from other tribes and learn to collaborate. "We believe that dignity comes before development. Unless someone believes in themselves first, you will push them into a hard world and they will retreat into a gang, and a destructive ethnic identity. We need to build and strengthen a national identity. We draw in Kenyan middle-class volunteers to help run these programmes. We believe we have to get the middle-class into development at a grassroots level, it shouldn't be left to the aid industry, foreigners and churches."

On aid, Githongo shows some scepticism – an appropriate qualification for his role on the commission. He is scathing of the bureaucratisation of aid and a culture of "workshops and per diems" that destroy development. Aid is best used building the capacities of citizens to improve governance, but Kenya needs to work towards a future in which it doesn't need aid, he argues.

And he has one final word of warning: "The relevance of western aid to the developing world is declining exponentially. China can sign a deal worth ten times the amount the UK government is offering Kenya in aid."