Whistleblowers are individuals who expose illegal, unethical, or improper activities of an individual, government or organization. They often do so at the risk of being harmed or even killed by those threatened by the exposure of the whistleblower’s information.
Across Africa, a worrying trend has emerged where whistleblowers are not afforded enough protection after exposing corrupt or illegal activities. More often than not, potential whistleblowers have to consider their future, their loved ones, and their safety.
Whistleblowers have lost their lives
One person very familiar with this situation is Ghanaian investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, known for his work on reporting corruption cases in the West African nation.
In recent years, Awuni has had to move around under armed police escort provided by the government.
In 2020, he had to flee Ghana for South Africa after receiving death threats. “All of this resulted in serious mental health challenges,” Awuni told DW.NOTE
He refers to the murder of undercover journalist Ahmed Suale, who was shot dead outside his house in 2019, after Ghanaian MP Kennedy Agyapong, upset about his reporting on corruption in Ghanaian football, revealed where Suale lived, his face and offered money to those who would harm him.
It became the first known case in Ghana of a journalist murdered for his work, and five years on still has not been solved.
“That tells you how dangerous it is to operate in an environment that you can be threatened. You can be killed. And nobody suffers or loses sleep over the killing,” said Awuni.
This situation is not unique to Ghana, but Ghana is actually one of the few African countries that has legal protections in place for whistleblowers. While All African countries except Eritrea are part of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), 10 nations — Central African Republic, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Morocco, Mauritania, Somalia, South Sudan, Eswatini — have not ratified it.
The only nations with specific whistleblower protection laws are Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Ethiopia and Botswana. But even in countries where there are protections in place for whistleblowers, murders and intimidation still take place.
While Ahmed Suale’s case rocked Ghana, South Africans South were shocked by the 2021 murder of Babita Deokaran, a key witness in an investigation into the overpriced procurement of COVID-19 protective clothing in a scandal involving about €20 million ($22 million). This is just one high-profile case of a South African whistleblower paying with their lives
.What are countries doing to protect whistleblowers?
Awuni says “the motive of the whistleblower is inconsequential if the issues they’re reporting are of serious national interest”.
But experts like Elijah Kandie Rottok, senior human rights officer with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, says: “It is in our own interest as Africans, as governments, as organizations to encourage whistleblowers to avert any harm or prevent damage, or to improve the public service and to strengthen our organizational or public accountability.”
On the ground, things are tough for rapid response officer Mathias Shibata from the Kenya-based Haki Africa human rights organization.
SOURCE: MSN
