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In this edition of the Kleptocracy Report:
- Two new instalments in ZAM’s Sell Outs transnational investigation put change-making in the spotlight. After decades of rapacious building on the vital Tanbi Wetlands in The Gambia, a citizens’ movement is blocking the corrupt activities that endanger proper water management. And some changes are appearing on the horizon in Mozambique, too.
- Also not taking it lying down anymore: NAIRE member Agather Atuhaire and her Kenyan fellow human rights defender Boniface Mwangi are suing the Tanzanian authorities for their abduction and torture in May this year.
- Africa Uncensored’s Joy Kirigia talks about the impact from her long-term investigation into politically connected land fraud in Kenya.
- We highlight Glitching the Future, a new campaign by ZAM in partnership with Bubblegum club that calls out the tech billionaires.
- And stories from our network!
Editorial
It was fun to note the comment from a desperate government department spokesperson in The Gambia, made in response to evidence of corrupt land allocations on the protected Tanbi Wetlands. “The Ministry of Lands is responsible for all this mess!” he cried out to ZAM’s Mariam Sankanu, trying to deflect blame from his own government arm.
In “Fighting the businesspeople who erode the Wetlands” (see below), Sankanu documents how the advent of democracy and a growing protest movement are disturbing the old kleptocratic ways in her country, leading to government departments pointing fingers at one another. The situation is still not ideal, but some building prohibitions are now in place. Both youth from the city and oyster traders in the Wetlands are adamant that it must stop altogether: “This water cannot be for sale.”
Changes are also afoot in Mozambique (see below), where real businesspeople have had quite enough of politicians using their own fake businesses to cut deals with investors.
Even torture and beatings can no longer enforce silence in a growing number of African countries. Ugandan NAIRE member Agather Atuhaire, and her fellow human rights defender Boniface Mwangi from Kenya, who were abducted and assaulted for four days by a Tanzanian torture squad in May (after having been handed over by Tanzania’s Dutch-trained immigration police) are now suing the Tanzanian authorities. They are supported by practically the entire African law profession, which, as ZAM reported previously, has also had quite enough of arbitrary and abusive law enforcement in their countries.
Regimes in Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, and elsewhere are now increasingly accusing their opponents of ‘terrorism’ (see here, here, and here.) Kenya has gone as far as arresting Boniface Mwangi once again, on a charge of ‘facilitating terrorism’. They had to quickly back down from that, though, which is perhaps an indication that even these oppressive regimes are starting to feel unsure that such tactics can prevent the winds of change.
Lastly, a reminder that we are now able to accept paid subscriptions to the Kleptocracy Report. Our content will remain free to all, but your support can help journalists publish in freedom and help open gateways for democratic change. Read more about our work and funding here.
The Gambia’s Water Victories
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The Tanbi Wetlands in The Gambia, vital for protecting both a thriving oyster trade and the flood-prone capital, have been severely threatened by unchecked industrial development, led by politically connected business interests. Under the authoritarian rule of former president Yahya Jammeh, much of this construction proceeded with little resistance. The transition to democracy in 2017, however, opened the door for civic action. Following devastating floods in 2022, a determined protest movement has emerged and begun securing key victories. Read Mariam Sankanu’s report here:
Mozambique’s political businesses
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In Estacio Valoi’s investigation into the “Sell Outs” of resources in Mozambique, he quotes a businessman who attended the Africa-China conference in Beijing in 2024. “We had a delegation of around 30 businesspeople from Mozambique. But there were others in the delegation whom we did not know. After we left the meeting, we found out that they signed contracts. We later discovered that these people were representing directors, ministers and others.” But real businesspeople are starting to move against politicians and their fake businesses.
A landmark justice case in East Africa
On 18 July (the birthday of Nelson Mandela, ), human rights defenders Agather Atuhaire and Boniface Mwangi filed a lawsuit against Tanzanian and East African authorities, holding them to account for their abductions, illegal imprisonment and torture in May this year. NAIRE member Atuhaire, Mwangi, and seven civil society and legal bar organisations from the East African region announced that they are seeking relief from Tanzania and other regional authorities to remediate what was done to them. Among the remedies sought are public apologies, compensation of at least US$ 1 million to each of the victims, rehabilitation and psychological support, formal condemnation of the unlawful acts perpetrated against them by the East African Community (EAC)’s Secretary-General, institutional and legal reforms to prevent recurrence, and a convening of the EAC Summit to review peace, security, and governance in the region.
Called a “landmark” case for the “soul of East Africa” by the leading pan-African legal media platform Africa Legal, the case is pending before the East African Court of Justice. ZAM and NAIRE are supporting the lawsuit.
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ZAM comment: any outcomes resulting from this action may well be more substantial than the responses we got from Dutch authorities – namely, zero – on our press release. We raised the fact that the Tanzanian immigration service, which handed Atuhaire and Mwangi to the torture squad, was and is being trained by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of its efforts to quell migration to Europe.
Pulling the terrorism card
A mere two days after the filing of the lawsuit, on 20 July, Boniface Mwangi was once again abducted, then arrested on a terrorism charge — this time by the authorities in his own country, Kenya. After reluctantly objecting to Mwangi’s abduction in May alongside Tanzania, Kenya’s Ruto regime, itself under fire from large anti-corruption protests, might have wanted to show that their police, too, can still intimidate activists. The terrorism charge was however quickly dropped the next day, though the prosecution is still trying to make a charge of ‘possession of ammunition’ stick .
The use of the ‘terrorism’ label to stifle dissent is a favoured tool of repressive governments. While Mwangi has been released on bail, charges ranging from violence to terrorism to arson are still being levelled against around a hundred Kenyan anti-government protestors, as well as by the Ugandan government against its critics, and slightly further south, by Mozambique’s authorities against opposition leader Venancio Mondlane.
Political cartels and land fraud
Our partners at Africa Uncensored in Nairobi, Kenya, released a new, hard-hitting instalment in the “Title Deals” video series in April this year. The first season in 2023 exposed the illegal evictions of farmers, demolitions, and corrupt land leases to bigwigs. The second season digs even deeper, uncovering key players and details of the intricate plots to dispossess citizens who rely on farming for their livelihood (most of the population in the country).
According to lead reporter and NAIRE member Joy Kirigia, whose work on the land theft earned her a Kenyan Media Council award in 2024: “Season 2 turns the lens on the very institutions meant to protect the public: police, land offices and other government institutions. It also raises urgent questions around Nairobi’s Urban Renewal Project and the threat of mass displacement in the name of development.” Together, the two investigative documentaries expose Kenya’s systemic land injustices, “revealing not only the theft but the machinery that makes it possible,” in the words of Africa Uncensored.
Asked whether the documentary project has had an impact on the problem, Kirigia says that some positives have indeed come out of it. “Some farmers got their land back. And we got hundreds of responses from citizens faced with similar problems. We are now building a database. So we are not done yet, by far.” There is growing outrage among a public that is generally fed up with corruption in Kenya, she adds. “We found and exposed many politically connected people involved with land theft, up to the highest level. It seems as if our president (William Ruto), who is linked to land dispute cases himself, is inspiring impunity all around him. The struggle for accountability is really a common factor here.”
Glitching the Future
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From land and minerals to data, the biggest kleptocracy kingpins operate globally. ZAM’s and Bubblegum Club’s new campaign, Glitching the Future, calls out the tech billionaires appropriating the cloud. Through innovative use of digital curating, a growing movement makes inroads into cyberspace, aware that digital systems — particularly those shaped by Big Tech — aren’t neutral, but reflect and reinforce the inequalities of the world they emerge from. Glitching the Future seeks to disrupt these systems by foregrounding African Futurist and Afrofeminist perspectives that challenge extractive, exclusionary technologies and propose more ethical, inclusive alternatives. Central to the initiative is the microsite, a digital toolkit and an evolving digital repository of artworks, essays, sonic works, and visual assets. including even poetry. “This is about reclaiming African resources, including its future,” says initiator Thembeka Heidi Sincuba.
News from our network
- Food for thought for those who are – perhaps a tad too easily – impressed with empty anti-colonial rhetoric. Rosebell Kagumire exposes the glamourised militarism of Burkina Faso’s new oppressor and sell-out, captain Ibrahim Traoré, in this op-ed.
- Our partners at Malawi’s Platform for Investigative Journalism have dug into president Lazarus Chakwera’s asset declarations, and found – rather disturbingly – precisely nothing .
- More disturbingly, they found that the individuals behind the brutal attack on activist Silvester Namiwa on 26th June this year have close ties to the ruling Malawi Congress Party. The PIJ’s report highlights a culture of impunity and exposes the forces at play.
- A new investigation by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective examines how BGFIBank DRC, a private bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was systematically captured and used as a tool for grand corruption by former President Joseph Kabila and his network. Drawing on millions of leaked internal documents—the largest data leak in African history—the Congo Hold-Up investigation reveals how politically exposed persons exploited the bank to embezzle and launder hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.
- Also on the Congo: the OCCRP exposes current DRC minister Guy Loando as a shareholder in a company that got millions from a road project .
Coming soon
Upcoming in Kleptocracy Report #9: more on the DRC (and especially also Guy Loando); a preview of ZAM’s new investigation into Russia’s recruitment of young Africans for its war industry; a criminal syndicate killing donkeys in Ghana; how Nigeria’s lavish military spending mainly benefits its own generals,;and more.
ZAM works with investigative reporters in African countries to bring you this content. Please subscribe, preferably paid, to support and enable more ZAM and NAIRE Kleptocracy Reports.
