National media failing Kenyans on Pandora Papers

Kenyan media are doing a disservice to the public by framing the revelations as an issue of legality rather than ethics.

The publication of the Pandora Papers, a significant investigation into how world leaders and public officials use offshore tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars has caused a bit of a stir in Kenya. However, by and large, the reaction of the Kenyan media has served to shed more darkness on an already obscure subject.

Among those whose overseas financial arrangements have been exposed are the family of President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose father, Jomo Kenyatta, was Kenya’s first president. That the Kenyattas, and other political families, have been stashing massive sums of money abroad will come as no surprise to anyone with a passing knowledge of Kenyan history. Easily the richest family in the land, there have long been complaints about how the wealth of the Kenyatta family was (and continues to be) acquired. The recent revelations about where it is kept will simply pour more fuel on the fire.

Even before he became president in 1964, Jomo Kenyatta was known for his problematic relationship with other people’s money. In the book Kenya: A History Since Independence, historian Charles Hornsby notes that as far back as 1947, people had noted Kenyatta’s “desire for money and difficulties in separating his personal financial affairs” from those of the institution he was running. These traits would attain full expression during his 15-year rule and beyond.