Goldenburg: Story of a whistleblower

After being in the service of the state in a uniform, his mother felt this had more attractions than a career in the service of the state, and also an opportunity for someone in the family to branch out.

CBK positions were prestigious and difficult to come by.

Munyakei knew that the job also included opportunities for further studies: “I applied for my job and I was qualified and I was employed in the proper procedure. I went for all the tests and I qualified.”

So he joined the CBK in 1991.

The Central Bank is both a citadel and behemoth; its design communicates all the finesse of muscle.

Until the late 1990s, the Bank building dominated Haile Selassie Avenue.

Then Times Tower was completed, all 30 storeys of it.

Now the two, with their constant supply of armed guards, dominate the street like bullies at the back of the class.

Somewhere inside the Central Bank is the Development Department where Munyakei started working in 1991.

Created in 1966, the CBK is a hierarchical institution, an offspring of the Bretton Woods philosophy that created financial institutions central to the economy of developing countries back in the 1950s and 1960s.

At the head of the Central Bank of Kenya is the governor — a position curious in the government bureaucracy because of its power and autonomy, like being both CEO and chairman of the board.

The governor is a presidential appointee but with security of tenure.

In Moi times, the governor was directly answerable to the president. In President Mwai Kibaki’s different ruling style, the position pays allegiance to the Finance Minister.

A CBK insider who has worked in mostly senior positions since the 1990s describes the institutional philosophy of the organisation: “Mediocrity was the single most obvious character trait at CBK. And this showed itself through the single most important trait, and this misplaced loyalty, loyalty to individuals, not commitment to banking rules, regulation and practice.”

He adds: “There was a chain of inter-linkages formed from the bottom to the top, especially in departments where money flows. If you were out of favour you were relegated to the so called non-cash departments. Things haven’t really changed since Pattni and there is still an Old Boy network with those who really benefited still in place.”