The Lunatic Express Files Project

Kenyan journalist Patrick Mayoyo receives the Lorenzo Natali Media Prize 2015 in Brussels, Belgium in January.
Photo © European Commission
This story is an effort of nearly two years of examining a treasure trove of data and investigations in four continents, which has exposed startling details on financing of development projects in developing countries by Development Financial Institutions (DFIs).
In the thick of the unfolding drama is global financier, the World Bank, four European Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and several other lenders.
The story show how an intricate web of deceit and connivance is suspected to have gobbled up millions of dollars in development financing. The loans were part of more than Sh 16.5 billion ($164) million meant for Rift Valley Railways (RVR), a major infrastructure project for Kenya and Uganda. Egyptian equity firm, Qalaa Holdings Ltd, formerly Citadel Capital, owns RVR.
The writer of this investigative project received immense support from Finance Uncovered in UK, Association of Brazil Investigative Journalists (Abraj) and Reuters Foundation’s Wealth of Nations programme, independent reporters and editors.
Patrick Mayoyo a dynamic, skilled and experienced investigative journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya who has written extensively on finance and environmental issues spearheaded the investigation after receiving a trove of documents in 2014.
Mayoyo is the 2015 European Commission`s Lorenzo Natali Media Prize Europe professional category winner with his story, “How to grow food in a slum: lessons from the sack farmers of Kibera” that was published by The Guardian of UK.
He is the CNN African Journalist Awards 2014 Environment category winner, 2014 African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting award online category and overall winner and the 2013 East Africa Community Awards’ Environment Reporting award first runner-up.
An expose he did on how oil exploration firms searching for oil in Kenya did so in total disregard to internationally accepted principles for sustainable development won him the Social and Environmental Responsibility World Journalism Prize in 2007.
He is a member of the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) and the Global Investigative Journalists Network (GIJN).
Mayoyo is the 2014-2015 The ACCER Awards Finalists Academy (TAAFA) fellow.
THIS INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT WAS JOINTLY SPONSORED BY THE JOURNALISM FUND THROUGH FLANDERS CONNECT CONTINENTS GRANT PROGRAMME AND THE BRAZILIAN ASSOCIATION OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM (ABRAJ).