Every thread in this archive has been traced by journalists, researchers, and writers dedicated to exposing the hidden patterns of kleptocracy. Here, you can meet the people behind the investigations, the voices who follow the threads and bring the web to light. The authors come from different backgrounds and regions, but together they weave stories that uncover how corruption connects across Africa and beyond.
Meet the authors
Estacio Valoi
Estacio Valoi was a runner up for the African continental FAIR award in 2012 for his work in uncovering government corruption in illegal logging. He also won the Environmental Journalism Award from the Worldwide Fund for Nature in 2017. His work has been featured by Le Monde, Mail & Guardian, Foreign Policy, Al-Jazeera, Daily Maverick, The Star, Deutsche Welle and CNN, among others.
James Onono Ojok
Poet, Environmentalist, Transitional Justice Advocate, Communications Officer James Onono Ojok is a freelance investigative journalist based in Uganda. He also works as a communications officer at Uganda’s Gulu University. He has published several works, including coverage of the civil war in northern Uganda.
Taiwo Adebulu
Taiwo Adebulu is the features and investigations editor at TheCable, a Nigerian independent digital newspaper. Previously, he was the head of the fact-check desk at the media outlet.
Adebulu has over 10 years of experience in investigative and development journalism, covering the environment, health, human rights, and corruption. He was an inaugural corps member of Report for the World, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project.
He has a bachelor’s degree in language arts from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a master’s degree in communication arts education from the University of Ibadan.
One of Adebulu’s investigations exposed the systematic corruption in Nigeria’s most prominent federal marriage registry. The story led to an outcry on social media, while citizens shared grim tales of bribery and extortion by public officials at the registry. The story led to Nigeria’s government enforcing a halt in the in-person registration of marriage licenses and reverting to online processes.
Adebulu was shortlisted for the 2023 Fetisov Journalism Awards, a top prize in international journalism, for his report that chronicled the abduction of Nigerian schoolgirls by terrorists who forcibly married and impregnated them. The story won the 33rd edition of the Diamond Award for Media Excellence in 2024.
Uchenna Igwe
Uchenna Igwe is a Nigerian journalist with experience in health, data and development reporting. He was previously a fellow of the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC), Code for Africa, the British Council’s Climate Connection programme and a Pulitzer grantee. He is currently an associate on the social accountability project of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and has works featured in Premium Times, The Guardian (UK), Dubawa, FairPlanet and IJNet, amongst other publications.