The Evolution of Whistleblowing in Kenya

From the classic cases of David Munyakei & the Goldenberg Scandal, John Githongo & the Anglo-leasing scandal, to the more recent reports of Nelson Amenya & the Adani Scandal.

Whistleblowing is not new to Kenya.

Dating back to the 80’s, it all begins with the simple old wooden box that welcomes us in every public institution.

Shut with a padlock, and inscribed with the phrase ‘Report Corruption Here’.

In 2016, the Anti-bribery Act was introduced to finally shine the light on the corrupt deeds within the private sector.

The Anti-Bribery Act was the first step towards the Whistleblower Protection Act.

The Whistleblower Protection Act Kenya was first introduced to parliament in 2023, and was redrafted in 2024.

The Failure of Manual Systems

There are four main ways that organisations have handled whistleblowing in the past:

1. Physical Mailbox
   The Original, sun-scorched, padlocked box often located at the entrance, the middle of the reception, or besides the parking area.
   
2. Email
   The first technological advancement, the whistleblower email.
   
3. Online form
   Please fill in all your details, submit your report, and hope we receive it.
   
4. ‘My Door is always Open’
   “If you ever see anything, just let me know – you’re safe with me!”

These methods are highly utilised by most organisations but have critical flaws that cause employees to lose faith in the system and make it redundant as a result.

If you know your organisation is using one of these methods, and you feel like it’s hasn’t given much results. Here is a Free Trial to our Whistleblowing Solution. 

Technical Requirements for Modern-Grade Solutions

With the lack of confidence given towards whistleblowing methods and distrust towards supposed whistleblowing protection.

What does an organisation need to have in order to regain employee and 3rd party party confidence towards reporting major concerns ?

Here is a quick overview of seven requirements required for a whistleblowing system to be considered modern-grade.

1. Absolute anonymity & confidentiality
   
2. Report Status
   
3. Evidence Upload
   
4. Two-Way Communication
   
5. End-to-End encryption
   
6. Login History
   
7. Case Retention

If you wish to go into more detail, please click here for a more detailed explanation of each requirement.

Roadmap to become compliant with the Whistleblower Protection Act Kenya

There are only two critical things every private and public Kenyan organisation needs to do in order to become fully compliant with the Whistleblower Protection Act Kenya:

1. A whistleblower policy
   An effective whistleblower policy requires six things in order to be clearly understood. These are:
   • Scope
   • Offences
   • Reporting Channels
   • Protection
   • Investigation
   • Timelines
   • Consequences
     Here are see the six factors broken down in more detail.
     
     Here is a free Whistleblower policy that you can use and edit for your organisation.
     • It is perfectly adapted to suit Kenyan Whistleblower demands and is in a word document format, so you can easily edit it to add your company name, and adjust it to suit your company policies.
       
2. Reporting Procedures
   The channels in which reports can be made, manner in which reports will be handled, timelines and much more. Here is a breakdown of the various factors that form a robust reporting procedure.

What makes an effective whistleblowing Service ?

If you have a whistleblowing policy, and a modern grade whistleblowing system, you’ll naturally find yourself in compliance with the Whistleblowing Protection Act Kenya.

However, what use is all of this if doesn’t actually do what it’s supposed to ? Namely, deter wrongdoing, promote integrity, and protect the good guys for doing the right thing.

To actually make your whistleblowing system effective, in my experience, you need to do two things:

1. Onboarding
   Set aside 1 hour where employees, and stakeholders are made aware of the newly acquired system, and trained on how to use it by making ‘practice reports’. Ensure the training details: 
   • Why is it there ?
   • How to access it ?
   • How to use it ?
   • When to use it ?
   • When not to use it ?
   • What happens when it is used ?
   • When does it go live ? (The day it commences)
     
2. Establish a Designated Person or body
   Appoint at least two objective people, who are well-trusted in the organization, with the responsibility of being ‘case-handlers’, and assign them the duties previously stated.
   
   Make their name and role known, and ensure they are well conversant around the system, and grant them the rights to investigate and act in line with the whistleblower policy.
   
   Most organisations prefer to use a body such as an:
   • Internal Compliance Team
   • Ethics Committee
   • External Forensic Team: For when serious matters requiring extra scrutiny is required.

Whatever your company decides, the point is that there needs to be accountability within the designated persons, and bodies.

Having a system and trained employees means nothing if there is no assigned person or team to actually review or establish communication with the whistleblower, and conduct investigations.

If you need a whistleblowing system that automatically triages the designated persons to a case in order to maintain accountability and honest case-handling, click here for a free trial of our whistleblowing software.

When will the Whistleblower Protection Act Kenya be passed ?

There is no definite date when the whistleblower’s protection act will become ratified.

But it is clear that due to fresh cases of whistleblower retaliation (watch below) there is strong legal support in getting it expedited – Particularly form ICPAK.

You can read more about it here.

Conclusion

Whether in the public or private sector, corruption and un-ethical activity is a disease that is revealed multiple times a Year.

It is the reason why, according to transparency.org , Kenya firmly holds the 30th position in the ‘corruption perception index’ and is about to move up to the 29th position as of writing this article.

The Whistleblower Protection Act Kenya is a glimmer of hope that evil can be weeded out by empowering the good people to attack, be defended by the law and systems around them, and not end up in the morgue tomorrow.

Evil prospers because good men do nothing.

Magnetic Snow