The scandal gripping football’s governing body FIFA may have got Western pundits hot under the collar, but it’s left African anti- corruption expert John Githongo decidedly nonplussed. Having dealt with ‘Big Men’, rocketing revenues and entrenched patronage networks on a daily basis, he says anyone with an eye on the ball could see the implosion coming. “There is nothing new about FIFA,” he says. “I’m surprised it’s caused such a ruckus.” No, he says – when it comes to allegations of bung-flinging he is far more enthralled by the UK’s new bribery laws, which allow the prosecution of businesses with interests in the UK found guilty of bribery anywhere in the world.

It’s an open secret that many multinationals employ dubious types to trawl government offices with briefcases of cash to oil the wheels of the most lucrative deals. The World Bank estimates that $1trn (€700bn) is spent each year on bribery, with security, extractive and construction industries among the worst offenders. African countries, many emerging from conflict or with feeble governance institutions, have some of the worst reputations. But for every African minister prepared to trouser a bribe there is a multinational ready to pay one, says Githongo. Emboldened by new legislation that includes the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the OECD foreign bribery convention, he aims to be on their tail as steadfastly as he has past quarries.

Githongo earned his reputation as a bright, brave reformer as anti-corruption chief under incumbent Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. He blew the whistle after unearthing a $750m security procurement scam at the heart of Kibaki’s regime and fled for his life to London. Six years on, and back in Nairobi where he says he is “tolerated but still followed about,” he doesn’t just have corporates in his sights. He harries African governments and is a thorn in the side of the donor community for not doing enough to tackle corruption, arguing that aid helps only in the right political environment. He’s an outspoken critic of transfer pricing – the practice of over- and under-invoicing that, he says, enables multinationals to extract millions from economies such as Kenya’s – and, convinced that corruption is best tackled from the bottom up, is busy building organisations to challenge bad governance at the grassroots level.

His massive physique and broad shoulders, honed by weightlifting, are a metaphor for the size of his adversary, which the African Union estimates costs the continent $150bn annually. Corruption, defined by watchdog Transparency International as the use of entrusted power for private gain, is systemic in many African countries. It’s a many-headed hydra coiled through and around governance institutions that deters investment as bureaucrats hike regulatory hurdles to generate new opportunities for bribery. Such sharp practices leave schools with ghost teachers on the payroll, and hospitals without drugs or equipment because the man on procurement was corrupt. “Corruption affects big-ticket items and ultimately kills. It undermines people’s confidence in their leadership and institutions, and that,” says Githongo with a dry, quiet laugh “is a troubling thing.”

In an interview in a dark corner of a London pub, during which he takes meticulous notes, Githongo says he is heartened by bribery prosecutions in the West. The castigating of engineering conglomerate Siemens in the largest corruption case in Germany’s corporate history, which exposed a slush fund used to pay bribes all over the world, is a case in point. He acknowledges setbacks – notably the UK Serious Fraud Office’s decision to drop its investigations into BAE Systems in 2006 because of political pressure from the government, worried about future arms deals with Saudi Arabia – but believes the tide is turning. “It is getting a more hostile environment. It’s difficult to catch, but not if we do our homework properly.”

Without robust institutions, tackling corruption within Africa is an altogether tougher task. He notes some successes, like Nigeria’s clearout of its rotten banking system in 2009, but admits Africa’s corruption fighters have limited weapons in their armoury. After his own explosive revelations failed to lead to a single prosecution and only two ministerial resignations, he has little faith in the courts. “The corrupt love the courts. They love them! Their lawyers are better paid than government lawyers.” In fragile democracies, the custom of shamed individuals swiftly resigning is light years away. Anti-corruption agencies set up in the 90s have also proved vulnerable, having their funding and staff removed at a stroke, with protagonists fleeing abroad in fear of their lives. Casting around the continent, Githongo lists the demise of South Africa’s Scorpions, set up to fight organised crime and corruption, the dismissal of Nigerian anti-corruption czar Nuhu Ribadu and the recent resignation and flight to Senegal of Sierra Leone’s energetic and effective anti- corruption chief, Abdul Tejan Cole.

Donors have a role to play in asking more searching governance questions. Githongo is in London for his work as a commissioner on the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. Set up by UK development secretary Andrew Mitchell, it scrutinises UK aid, gauging value for money for taxpayers. At a time when fiscal deficits have squeezed aid budgets the UK government has raised aid to 0.7% of GDP. It gives Britain, uniquely among OECD governments, the moral authority to speak up on governance.

That said, the influence of aid is declining. BRIC countries on the rise, he says, “play by Cold War rules as far as governance, accountability and corruption are concerned”. China, able to offer billions of dollars of unqualified infrastructure investment, has changed the game forever. But just as the fight seemed unwinnable, the Arab Spring has proved the power of grassroots activism in affecting change, and it is here that Githongo is pinning his hopes. He is convinced that empowering people through information via mobile, Twitter and Facebook is the best route to building protest and better governance. This year he founded grassroots movement Ni SiSi Kenya (“it is us”) to translate the impact of large extractions of wealth from the economy to ordinary Kenyans. “The anger is there,” he says. “If you innovate, stay at the grassroots level and use new technology, it creates opportunities for change that are very powerful.”

Indeed, he believes that corruption makes some sub-Saharan nations ripe for the same kind of uprisings as Egypt and Tunisia. It’s an argument informed by Kenya’s post-election violence, when tribes long marginalised by the Kibaki administration rose up after his disputed re-election. “Take Tunisia,” explains Githongo, drawing in a breath (although he could just as easily be talking about countries such as Cameroon, Uganda or Gabon). “The economy was growing. All the aggregates were on the way up. Yet it blew up because of extremely corrupt governance accompanied by conspicuous, exclusive consumption. If you have a large population of idealistic youth who are saying, ‘I am never going to own a house because I’m not well-connected, I’m not on the inside track,’ then that resentment is hugely powerful.” He argues that corruption and growth are comfortable bedfellows and that although sub-Saharan Africa doesn’t have the same kind of autocratic leaders as its northern neighbours, it has fragile authoritarian democracies nonetheless, often with dubious election records.

Githongo hasn’t finished yet. This leads him to a new argument, one that he says gets him into trouble – that inequality has replaced poverty as Africa’s biggest challenge and that GDP as a measure of development is now too blunt a tool. “More people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 15 years than in the entire history of humanity but there are huge contradictions. India has the highest number of poor people in the world but they are sending people to the moon.”

The answer, he says, is more institutions to mitigate the political effects of inequality, but these take generations to nurture into life and two to three legitimate and peaceful transitions of power. It is happening – he says that he has been encouraged by Nigeria’s recent elections – but it is a painfully slow process.

There is the occasional breakthrough. Shortly after Githongo’s London trip, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) announced it had saved the country 780 million Kenyan shillings (€5.9m) in the second quarter of 2011. The scams intercepted apparently included a flouted procurement process involving the construction of a hotel in Coast Province, the irregular allocation of public plots of land and irregular tax exemptions.

However, the fact that KACC estimates that corruption still takes up to 35% of Kenya’s overall GDP illustrates just how far there is to go.