Nairobi, Aug. 9 -- Every Kenyan joins politics with a burning desire for change. In the end, it is politics that changes them - and, often, not for the better.

Like many corporate executives whose professionalism is forged in years spent occupying the coveted corner offices of some blue-chip companies, Mwangi wa Iria joined entered politics with what appeared to be an almost evangelistic mission of transforming lives even as he thought he would help cleanse a system poisoned by corruption and ineptitude.

He drew confidence from his success at the Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC), where he had inherited a state corporation struggling to process milk, sell its products and pay farmers.

He renamed it New KCC and, with Sh200 million in g...