International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Mutegi Njau, Kenya, is the investigative editor of The Nation newspaper in Nairobi, where he leads a team of five investigators.

Mutegi Njau, Kenya

Njau worked with The New York Times in uncovering the circumstances leading up to the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, and The Nation was the first to publish information, indicating that U.S. government officials had received prior warning of an attack. Both newspapers later reported how the American Embassy had taken few serious preventive measures despite these warnings. In April 1994, Njau was charged with subversion after publishing a story describing the government helicopter transport of rival warriors into the Burnt Forrest area of western Kenya during tribal clashes there. The charges were later dropped. Njau’s investigative work is also credited with helping to bring Kenyan Treasury Secretary Wilfred Koinange and four other senior government officials to trial in connection with a scam that cost the country $350 million. Njau was invited to speak on white-collar crime and corruption in Kenya at a 1994 U.N. conference on crime in Cairo, Egypt. In 1992, Njau worked at The Charlotte Observer while on an Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship.