Breaking barriers, fighting graft: Kinisu's Memoir speaks to Kenya's unfinished business

Philip Kinisu’s memoir, ‘The Interrupted Accountant,’ has stirred conversations over Kenya’s unending battles with corruption,  weak institutions, and the high personal cost of integrity.

“We were naïve? Yes. This was not a matter for objectivity or professionalism. Vested interests could see their gravy trains under attack and understandably, staff felt threatened

despite the assurances provided,” he said.

“Basically, the exercise was a non-starter because court cases and campaigns within and without EACC were initiated to stymie the vetting. Voices in support of vetting were either

a whimper or non-existent. I was left leading a commission that was powerless to carry out this key task. Wither the confidence to carry on? The lords of corruption had won round

one.”

Kinusi said after he took office, there was attempt to assassinate him in order to shield his ambition of taking up the role as chairman of the watchdog office.

“In February, 2016 a month after joining EACC, someone fired a gun on a building housing my office, luckily no one was injured. I attribute the attack so early into my term in office

to send a message that whoever they were could get me whenever they wished,” he said.

“Secondly to some pronouncements I had made on the strategy the new commission was going to adopt. The strategy promised professionalism, independence and

expeditiousness, virtues that were at the time an anathema to those who profited from corruption.”  

Kinisu rose through the ranks at PwC to serve as Partner, Territory Senior Partner, and eventually Chairman of the Africa Board in a career spanning over three decades.

His book, prefaced by glowing tributes from leading voices, has been hailed for its candour and literary flair.

After school, he embarked on an extraordinary professional journey, sharpening his skills in Kenya and the UK before returning to PwC.

At the firm, Kinisu’s most significant contribution was leading the Public Sector Group, a team that  designed accountability solutions across Africa. This expertise proved vital when

the United Nations created the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Kinisu writes: “The skills and experience built up within PwC in sub-Sahara Africa to deliver

accountability solutions… came in handy when the Fund was established and subsequently in its operations worldwide.”

Back home, PwC under his leadership pioneered value-for-money audits and took centre stage in governance battles. The firm’s forensic audit of the maize scandal during the

Grand Coalition era led to the suspension of cabinet ministers, including then Agriculture Minister William Ruto. “Soon after the scandal surfaced,” Kinisu recalls, “top leaders…

started deflecting responsibility and shifting blame onto others, in order to cloud the national debate. Some of them leaned on us, (unsuccessfully of course) hoping to steer the

investigation in a direction to pin down their opponents.”

Such experiences foreshadowed his own ordeal as chairman of the  Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

Appointed in 2016, Kinisu lasted barely seven months before resigning amid what he describes as a coordinated smear campaign, threats, and assassination attempts orchestrated

by entrenched cartels.

Emerging from the book are critical lessons for today’s Kenya: the value of merit in a society often undermined by nepotism, the fragility of institutions in the face of vested interests,

and the high price professionals pay for standing up to corruption.

Former Auditor General Edward Ouko observes that Kinisu “is a man genuinely interested in seeing that our institutions deliver on their mandates.

“When opportunities for intervention to strengthen those institutions arose, he threw himself at the challenges irrespective of the consequences or his personal interests.”

George Kegoro, the former Law Society of Kenya secretary, sees the book as more than a personal memoir but a mirror held up to Kenya its promise, its failures,

and its unfinished struggle for accountability.