Ranneberger's departure from Nairobi has been expected for months. Now, the very Kenyan politicians Ranneberger has long targeted are likely to be eager to hasten his exit, after some 1,400 diplomatic cables originating from his office were included by Wikileaks in the organization's latest release of confidential U.S. government documents.

According to initial reporting on the Wikileaks publications, almost every single sentence in the embassy reports set to be made public is disdainful of the government of President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. But although the documents will be embarrassing, and possibly damaging to Ranneberger's legacy, they are not likely to yield any revelatory information. Even as Wikileaks was making headlines worldwide, Ranneberger made the front page of the leading Kenyan newspaper, the Daily Nation, by calling for the resignation of the country's chief justice and attorney general, calling their continued presence in government a threat to the future stability of Kenya's development.

However, the cables are being released at a crucial time for Kenya, coming just months after Patrick Lumumba took over as the new director of the Kenyan Anti-Corruption Campaign (KACC), tasked with illuminating some of the murky depths of endemic corruption in East Africa's largest economy.

Penetrating the layers of Kenya's institutional theft, colloquially known as "eating," has historically been a Herculean task, one that has nearly destroyed some of the country's most idealistic and inspired campaigners. Slight and cherub-faced, Lumumba would appear at first glance to be overmatched by the rampant theft that in the past two-and-a-half years alone has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds to vanish into thin air -- in scandals over textbooks, maize and fuel.

But Lumumba shares more than just a body type with his namesake, the freedom-fighter and first elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to human rights activists and local government officials in Nairobi, he has a similar iron will and determination. 

Lumumba's performance since his appointment in July has certainly been bold enough: In the months since, he has launched investigations that have prompted the resignation and suspension of some of Kenya's biggest political names. Revelations of land deals, misappropriated funds and irregular issuance of citizenship papers have removed three ministers from the spotlight -- perhaps also putting them out of competition with Odinga for the presidency in the coming 2012 polls.

Another four cabinet ministers are in Lumumba's cross-hairs, and as many as 45 chiefs of Kenyan quasi-governmental institutions are also under investigation, the KACC has said. Nor is the Kenyan Police Force, considered the most corrupt institution in an institutionally corrupt nation, set to be spared a turn under the microscope.

Lumumba's enthusiasm contrasts with Kenya's previous anti-corruption efforts, which fared depressingly poorly. As a condition for aid in the 1990s, the International Monetary Fund demanded the establishment of an anti-corruption agency. That body lasted six months before its director was sacked and its activities declared unconstitutional by the High Court.

Ending corruption in government was also the signature campaign promise of a coalition of opposition parties led by Mwai Kibaki that swept into power in 2002, finally bringing an end to Kenya's single-party rule. By 2005, though, corruption was as entrenched in the Kibaki government as any before it. The refusal by Kibaki's closest advisers to probe deeper into the 1990s-era Goldenberg scandal, and the Anglo Leasing scandal that took place under Kibaki's guard, cemented Kenya's reputation as one of the world's most-corrupt nations. That reputation was borne out by the country's recent ranking of 154 out of 178 nations by Transparency International.

Now Lumumba has suggested that he will not limit his investigations to the current Kenyan government, and might even reopen a probe into the Anglo Leasing scam, for which not a single player -- in or out of government -- has been prosecuted.

However, if history is any guide, the KACC may have its time in the limelight cut short. Kenyan politicians who have been sacked or removed from office have a funny way of returning to government, as illustrated by the decision to slide George Saitoti -- currently internal security minister and thus responsible for corruption investigations, and formerly finance minister in the 1990s, around the time of the Goldenberg scandal -- into the foreign ministry. 

Ranneberger, one of the KACC's most prominent and visible allies, is scheduled to introduce U.S. Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero to Lumumba today. The move is part of the U.S. emphasis on the need for the KACC's work to continue, in line with the implementation of political reform before the 2012 polls. Now the Wikileaks revelations could empower Nairobi to demand Ranneberger's swift removal, a prospect worrisome to those who counted on the new Kenyan constitution to give the KACC prosecutorial powers to augment its investigations. 

Without Ranneberger, or a replacement willing to be a similarly strong advocate for reform, Kenya's anti-corruption efforts might join U.S. diplomacy as a victim of the Wikileaks fallout.

**Lauren Gelfand is a freelance journalist and analyst now based in Nairobi, Kenya, with an interest in security and defense issues. After beginning her career as a wire service correspondent, working on three continents for Agence France-Presse, she currently serves as Middle East and Africa editor for Jane's Defence Weekly magazine. She writes in French and in English for a variety of publications.