One good thing about being a human being, and not just a soulless automaton that processes words and turns them into other words, is that I can occasionally be proud of things that I say. Joseph Nderitu (pictured right) is a fine person and an exemplary professional, whose experience in working across many different African telcos is only exceeded by his generosity towards everybody he has worked with. He is wiser than me, and I wish I had his accomplishments. He is a pilot, a farmer, a pillar of the community who stands up for the rights of his fellow Kenyans. That was why I was so fucking angry that the corrupt government of Tanzania falsely accused Joseph of crime, throwing him into prison with four other falsely accused Vodacom employees, until the government had extorted the money that was the sole motivation for their shakedown.
Joseph will only discover the following by reading this article, because I did not wish to upset him following the terrible injustice that was done to him. But now is the time for me to share that some so-called professionals told me to distance myself from Joseph for my own good. They told me to worry about the consequences for my reputation. I rather feel that they should be worried about their reputations, because those people all made an enemy of me, and I have a very long memory. They showed themselves to be snakes who would turn on anybody as soon as it becomes convenient, or to be so lacking in professional judgement that they cannot tell the difference between brazen government corruption that follows a well-established pattern and the evidence that would be required to convict somebody of crime in a fair trial. The justice system in Tanzania was blatantly rigged to deny Joseph and his peers a fair trial. Meanwhile, countless governments across the planet do nothing about the real criminals which heroes like Joseph work so hard against.
You may not have read Joseph’s prison journal. You should. I guarantee that you will learn a lot more from Joseph’s insights than from much of the drivel that people have paid me to write. That is why I am proud that Commsrisk published his journal, and that I retain sufficient freedom to ignore the bad advice proffered by people whose opinions I do not value. And I am even more proud to receive one small mention in Joseph’s latest call for justice, which is written with more humanity and humor than I could ever summon.
