July 14 (Reuters) - Here are details on some recent prominent anti-corruption whistle-blowers around Africa, including South Africa's Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who said on Thursday the police were involved in a questionable $265 million property lease deal.
* THULI MADONSELA: SOUTH AFRICA:
-- Madonsela said police acted improperly in leasing properties at above-market prices from a real estate mogul who has close ties to the ruling African National Congress.
-- She was appointed in Oct. 2009.
-- One of the drafters of South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, she forfeited a Harvard scholarship to focus as one of the technical advisers who worked with the Constitutional Assembly in drafting the current constitution.
-- She was co-architect of Justice Vision 2000, the National Action Plan on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, Employment Equity Act, Local Government Transition Act. She has also contributed to several other laws enacted to transform the legal system since 1994.
-- Her office can only make recommendations for action to law enforcement officials, limiting her ability to tackle corruption.
* JOHN GITHONGO: KENYA
-- Githongo's appointment as Kenya's first anti-corruption adviser in Jan. 2003 was widely seen as evidence of President Mwai Kibaki's seriousness in fighting graft.
-- Githongo was born in London but as a toddler returned to Kenya where his accountant father set up business.
-- Githongo warned in May 2004 of surging corruption in Kenyan public life, 17 months after Kibaki's government came to power pledging to fight corruption plaguing east Africa's biggest economy.
-- He was moved suddenly in June 2004 from the office of the president to the justice ministry, a sign commentators say that his time was up.
-- Under growing pressure and personal frustration, Githongo quit in Feb. 2005.
-- A dossier Githongo prepared was leaked to the press in 2006 gave details of state tenders worth hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to fictitious firms, including Anglo Leasing.
* NUHU RIBADU: NIGERIA
-- Ribadu studied law and spent 18 years working for the Nigerian police before becoming the first chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
-- He won international praise for arrests of graft suspects and seizures of assets as the head of the EFCC, receiving the World Bank's 2008 Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service.
-- Ribadu also made enemies for pursuing cases against powerful state governors and was fired in late 2007. He fled Nigeria for Britain and the United States in January 2009, saying his life was in danger, but returned last year.
-- He was nominated as the Action Congress of Nigeria presidential candidate but was considered an outsider for the presidential election.
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