"To know where we’re going, we have to know where we came from."
Declassified is a bold, satirical 10-part mockumentary series that revisits some of Kenya’s biggest corruption scandals, moments that not only looted billions from public coffers but also shaped the nation’s political, economic, and cultural landscape.
Structured as a parody of investigative journalism, Declassified unpacks scandal after scandal from shady land grabs and ghost projects to procurement fraud and political cover-ups. Each episode walks viewers through real cases with fictional commentary, exaggerating the absurdity not to distort the truth, but to highlight how surreal the truth already is.
Kenya has long struggled with corruption. According to Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, Kenya scored 31 out of 100, ranking 123rd out of 180 countries, well below the global average. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) estimates that the country loses over KES 700 billion (approx. $5 billion USD) annually to corruption. These are not just statistics, they represent stolen healthcare, collapsed bridges, underpaid teachers, and dreams deferred.
While citizens often express outrage in the moment, public memory is short. Declassified exists to archive and provoke, to hold a mirror to our institutional failures and ask why we keep repeating history. Using satire allows Declassified to break through fatigue and cynicism. By dramatizing the drama, through exaggerated reenactments, fictional whistleblowers, and absurd archival "footage", the series reveals the deep dysfunction of a system where corruption is rarely punished, and often normalized.
Each episode tackles one scandal, creatively reconstructing the story behind it, the players involved, and the cost to the nation. Viewers are left to consider not just who stole what, but how we allowed it and continue to allow it.