Michela Wrong

Michela Wrong (born 1961) is a British journalist and author who spent six years as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC, and the Financial Times. Her debut book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (2001) covers the time she has spent in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) as it transitioned from the leadership of Mobutu to the that of Kabila. Her second book "I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation" (2004) is the story of Eritrea and its existence through Italian, British, American and Ethiopian occupation.

"It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower" (2009) tells the story of John Githongo, a Kenyan journalist and civil society activist who, in 2002, took on a senior anti-corruption role within the newly elected government of President Mwai Kibaki. In this role, Githongo uncovered widespread evidence of corruption (notably the Anglo-Leasing scandal) located high up within the Kibaki government. The book also discusses the role of ethnicity in Kenyan politics and is strongly critical of the response of the international aid community to the Githongo case. The World Bank and the British government's aid department (DFID) come in for particularly strong criticism, though notable exceptions are also highlighted, such as Edward Clay, the then British High Commissioner to Kenya.

Wrong writes regularly for the New Statesman magazine. She currently lives in London.

Wrong is also the granddaughter of Oxford historian Edward Murray Wrong and daughter of the eminent nephrologist Oliver Wrong.

Works

• Wrong, Michela (2001). In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo. HarperCollins. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-06-018880-1.

• Wrong, Michela (2005). I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation. HarperCollins. p. 448. ISBN 978-0-06-078092-0.

• Wrong, Michaela (2009). It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. Harper. p. 368. ISBN 978-0-06-134658-3.

External links

• Michela Wrong's website
• Going Too Far an interview with Wrong in Guernica Magazine