Sierra Leone Telegraph: 15 July 2025:
In exactly two years from now, the people of Sierra Leone will go to the polls. Will Dr Kandeh Yumkella’s name be on the ballot paper?
Dr Kandeh Yumkella was speaking recently on AYV TV, where he was asked whether he would like to become the president of Sierra Leone. Quite rightly, many would argue, he was very diplomatic in his reply. Afterall, he did work at the United Nations.
He told the reporter that he will leave that question to the leadership and members of the SLPP, a party to which he defected after losing the presidential race in 2023 as leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party.
Most analysts agree on one thing – the leadership of the SLPP do not trust Yumkella. He is regarded as someone who should remain within the party hierarchy where his ambitions can be controlled, and his ego clipped. And clipped it has.
Since defecting to the governing SLPP after ditching his NGC party in 2023 to become the Chairman of President Bio’s National Energy and Food Security quango, Yumkella is seen by many as President Bio’s ‘electricity poster boy’ and bag carrier, with very little power and authority.
And now that the SLPP party’s 2028 presidential election flagbearer contest is rearing its head, supporters of Yumkella are fancying his chances. But what do the party rank and file think about Yumkella?
“Kandeh Yumkella Snubs SLPP,” was the headline published last week by the SLPP media mouthpiece – Global Times, after he failed to turn up at their party head office in Freetown for a visit. Not a good press for someone who wants to become SLPP’s presidential candidate.
“The main opposition SLPP stalwarts who were expecting the former UNIDO Director General, Kandeh Yumkella to visit their party headquarters in Freetown last Friday were left disappointed. The retired UN man arrived in Freetown on Thursday to honour the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce as a Keynote Speaker to their annual event at the Radisson Blu Hotel,” says the rather disappointed SLPP media.
According to Global Times, “Mr. Yumkella’s campaign outfit, the KKY Movement had spread the news around that he was going to make his first official visit to the SLPP headquarters on Friday where he was expected to join other Muslims to perform the Juma prayer. But instead, Dr. Yumkella chose to go to the nearby Freetown Central Mosque where worshippers afterwards deserted the main hall as he was about to speak. He nevertheless told a handful of the worshippers left in the mosque that he has now returned home to help his country. He did not elaborate.”
The SLPP media went on to say that; “Early this year, ……Dr. Yumkella sought police protection to accompany him to the SLPP headquarters. He called off the visit at the dying minutes, Police sources confirmed to Global Times. ‘Why must he seek police protection to visit a party he claimed to be a member’, police sources queried.”
Musing about Yumkella’s presidential ambition, the Global Times said: “There are reports that he is preparing to launch his election campaign for the SLPP flagbearership in Freetown in a not too distance future. But the former UN man faces a herculean task of convincing the vast majority of SLPP stalwarts many of whom have already questioned his membership of the party he wants to lead.”
Worse for Yumkella, is the fact that his membership of the SLPP is now being questioned by the SLPP rank and file.
“Dr. Yumkella himself had said in a radio interview that he has neither registered nor voted in any election and was not a member of any political party in this country. But in a bizarre twist of event early this year, the KKY Movement claimed Dr. Yumkella was already a registered card holder of the Bo district branch of the SLPP. That claim was instantly and robustly dismissed by the Southern Regional office as ‘fraudulent and fake’. And in yet another controversial move, Dr. Yumkella was recently issued an SLPP party card in a USA chapter of the party, prompting the SLPP North American branch to mount an investigation into the issuance of party card to him,” says Global Times.
These are not happy times for the embattled former NGC party presidential flagbearer, who is currently preoccupied with formulating a sustainable strategy that could transform Sierra Leone’s erratic electricity supply.
If he fails, members of the SLPP will point to this as evidence of Yumkella’s lack of leadership capability and unfitness to govern the country.
If he succeeds in solving the country’s electricity problems, he will have one powerful record to put in his SLPP presidential flagbearership application form to boost his chances of becoming president.
The SLPP presidential flagbearer race is wide open, with over a dozen potential candidates vying for the top position.
But the two main contenders that Yumkella must beat, are: Vice President Juldeh Jalloh (Photo – left), who many in the party regard as a reliable, trustworthy and loyal politician; and the young, colourful and rather exuberant Chief Minister – David Sengeh (Photo – right), who is oozing with confidence about his chances of becoming the next leader of the SLPP and president of Sierra Leone.
If one should put the question of capability, trust and loyalty aside, it must be said that both Juldeh and Sengeh are senior in rank within the SLPP government and party structure to Yumkella. And that, is what many see as Yumkella’s Achilles’ heel.
I never have doubt in APC, they can flipflop at any given time. Dr. Kandeh Yumkella
formed a new party 2018. APC smashed him to pieces, even forced him to strip himself of his US Citizenship. When Dr. Kandeh Yumkella exited the SLPP party, APC was happy. So he should just keep quiet.
It seems to me that the unapologetic – not to say barefaced – political manoeuvring that saw Kandeh Yumkella ditch the NGC for the SLPP may well have dented his ambition of ever becoming president.
The aura, charisma, respect, and credibility his name once evoked in the eyes of a sizeable portion of the Sierra Leonean electorate took an irreparable nosedive, leaving in their wake an image of a pathetically impatient political figure consumed by hubris and an unquenchable hunger for the highest office in the land.
Voters across the country including those in the SLPP, whom he previously left in 2018 for the NGC, have long memories. They may be in no mood to forget, let alone forgive, when it is time to choose a flagbearer for 2028, or, if he somehow makes it that far, to elect the next president.