Kenyan whistleblower faces lawsuit, death threats after exposing $2bn airport deal

When Nelson Amenya blew the lid on a murky $2 billion deal to lease out Kenya’s biggest airport, he didn’t anticipate the backlash he would face: online trolls, a $68,000 defamation lawsuit and death threats. 

“They’re after you, bro. Lawsuits or a bullet, your call. Quit hitting the state and watch your back. One misstep, and you’re gone,” said a caller delivering one of the most chilling warnings. 

Amenya said the call came from a high ranking official in Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations he considers sympathetic to his cause. 

Public furore following Amenya’s whistleblowing — and news that United States authorities had charged Gautam Adani, the Indian billionaire at the centre of the deal in his American dealings — saw Kenya’s President William Ruto scrap the airport deal. 

Despite that validation, Amenya was targeted for speaking out. Business person Jayesh Saini, whom Amenya named among Adani’s top fixers in Kenya, sued him in France where he is living on a student visa.

The court dismissed the case in January, by which time Amenya had won Transparency International Kenya’s Whistleblower Integrity Actions award and been named by the New African Business magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2024. 

But social media accounts continued to send him messages threatening that his mother wasn’t as safe as he was in France. At one point, his parents called him saying they had been interrogated by Kenyan police over a missing car they didn’t know anything about. Amenya’s Kenyan business received a letter suggesting that it was under police investigation. 

Whistleblowers across Africa walk similarly bittersweet journeys of public appreciation and severe personal cost. 

Only a handful of countries — Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda — have laws that protect whistleblowers. Kenya does not, despite a years-long struggle to pass one. 

Elizabeth Duya, of Transparency International Kenya, says Amenya’s fate could have been different if the Whistleblowers Protection Bill had been enacted. 

It proposes protections (such as a framework for anonymous reporting) not just for whistleblowers but also protects their relatives. 

Prohibited retaliation includes not just physical threats but also more subtle forms at the workplace and in court. “It’s one of the most progressive drafts we’ve had,” said Duya. 

“It borrows from global best practices, including financial rewards for leakers,” said Antony Karuga, of Kenya’s Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission. But the Bill has been in limbo since 2013. 

“The political will just isn’t there,” said Duya. 

It is “bogged down in the slow churn of public consultations, parliamentary readings and political debate”, according to Karuga. 

Whatever the cause of delay, the cost is clear. “Fighting graft begins with speaking out, but in Kenya, as in many African nations, there’s no dedicated framework to protect tipsters,” Duya added. “Relying on vague constitutional rights isn’t enough. That’s why so many stay silent.” 

Where whistleblower protection laws exist, they have major blind spots, or their enforcement is weak. Ghana’s 2006 Whistleblowers Act — one of Africa’s most robust, on paper — hasn’t translated to real safety. 

In a 2018 study, public policy scholar Joseph Antwi-Boasiako found that fear of retaliation outweighs the promise of justice. When graft is exposed, it is often met with official inaction. 

But when retaliation comes, the toll is heavy. Journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale was gunned down in 2019 after a lawmaker exposed his identity as one of the undercover reporters behind a graft exposé. 

His colleague Manasseh Azure Awuni fled to South Africa the following year amid threats to his own life. 

South Africa’s Protected Disclosures Act offers some legal cover for whistleblowers facing retaliation. But, according to a Corruption Watch report, it exposes them to the risk of more direct threats. 

The cost of exposure was highlighted when Babita Deokaran, a whistleblower who revealed a $22 million Covid-19 procurement scandal, was gunned down outside her Johannesburg home in August 2021. 

With little to no protection, whistleblowers face stark choices. For Amenya, the ultimate price might be losing Kenya as his home. 

He said there is no chance that he will return home even though the student visa allowing him to live in France will expire in June. “Not under this regime.” 

Yet Duya is hopeful. 

“These laws show intent. With time, they could offer real protection and encourage more people to speak up.”

This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.