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Australian-Awarded Scholarship Recipient, Yeanoh Kama Kanu Forced to Resign Her Job
The Chiefdom’s traditional authorities, elders, and community members have raised serious allegations against Mrs. Yeanoh Kama Kanu relating to actions believed to violate sacred customs, ancestral Values, and long-standing social norms of the Limba people.
These alleged actions have caused significant distress among traditional custodians, who view them as a direct affront to the dignity, spiritual order, and cultural identity of the Chiefdom.
The Community wishes to emphasize that offences of this nature carry profound cultural consequences. When left unaddressed, they risk creating deep social divisions weakening traditional authority, and undermine the harmony that binds the people together," Augustine Tarawalli, Speaker Safroko Limba Chiefdom, Makeni City, Bombali District Northern Sierra Leone said in a letter to the Minister of Political and Community Affairs formerly Public Affairs dated 9th February, 2026 requesting for the surrendering of thirty-six years old Mrs. Yeanoh Kama Kanu, Senior Gender & Advocacy Officer National-Commission for Democracy (NCD) Sierra Leone and an Australian-awarded scholarship recipient pursuing her Masters of Art degree specializing in Gender and Women's Studies at Flinders University Adelaide Australia.
As an Australian -awarded African scholarship recipient, Mrs. Kanu's returning home served a dual purpose – to participate in the National Commission for Democracy's (NCD) signature "Face-to-Face with Democracy" outreach programme and piloting her own Reintegration Action Plan.
The Reintegration Action Plan is a strategic community-level project designed to translate her academic insights into practical democratic and inclusive frameworks, set to be fully implemented upon the completion of her studies. Fully approved by both the National NCD and her academic scholarship sponsors, the initiative seamlessly bridges theoretical research in gender and social inclusion with grassroots democratic participation.
This fieldwork highlights the vital role of international scholarship programs in empowering professionals to drive tangible, community-led development upon their return to their countries.
On the 5th February 2026, Mrs. Kanu, Mr. Kargbo and their driver travelled to Mabonkeni Village, Safroko Chiefdom with Lamin Kargbo, age 36, resident of Moiglja Drive, Freetown, Communications Officer and their driver were assaulted in the line of duty.
Makeni City, Bombali District Northern Sierra Leone is regarded as a political stronghold of the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party, and homeland of the country's former President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma who was recently granted amnesty for his alleged involvement in a failed coup in November 2023.
In July 2020, protest broke out in Makeni following the governing Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) decision to relocate a standby electricity generator to Lungi, Port Loko District.
Residents viewed the move as a threat to electricity supply leading to a fatal protest. At least five protesters were killed when security forces intervened during the unrest. Other reports suggested that the death toll may have reached six according to Media Foundation for West Africa, and other sources.
Civil society organizations and human rights advocates have repeatedly questioned why no one has been prosecuted in connection with the deaths.
At the same time, government officials have argued that security personnel were responding to a rapidly deteriorating situation characterized by violence, destruction of property and attacks on public facilities. Authorities subsequently pledged to investigate the incident, though critics maintained that the victims' families are still waiting for meaningful accountability.
The case remains a prominent example cited by rights advocates who argue that the state must do more to ensure accountability whenever lethal force is used against civilians by members of the security sector.
Mrs. Kanu who was speaking through an interpreter on the need for reintegration, stressed the need for the protection of girls, women, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) and other minority groups.
Mrs. Kanu appealed to the participants that minority groups have rights too and their rights must be protected and respected for the peaceful coexistence and development of the community.
Mrs. Kanu's comments were deemed antithetical and inimical to the cultural, traditional, religious and social values of the people who wasted no time to launch an instantaneous, coordinated verbal and physical attack against her and her colleagues.
"They were almost lynched, their properties including, laptop computer, mobile phones and other belongings seized by the locals.
An elder said that Mrs. Kanu's way of thinking has been contaminated by western education and she is now being used by westerners to brainwash the locals in their way of life by sowing a seed of discord," an anonymous sour
These alleged actions have caused significant distress among traditional custodians, who view them as a direct affront to the dignity, spiritual order, and cultural identity of the Chiefdom.
The Community wishes to emphasize that offences of this nature carry profound cultural consequences. When left unaddressed, they risk creating deep social divisions weakening traditional authority, and undermine the harmony that binds the people together," Augustine Tarawalli, Speaker Safroko Limba Chiefdom, Makeni City, Bombali District Northern Sierra Leone said in a letter to the Minister of Political and Community Affairs formerly Public Affairs dated 9th February, 2026 requesting for the surrendering of thirty-six years old Mrs. Yeanoh Kama Kanu, Senior Gender & Advocacy Officer National-Commission for Democracy (NCD) Sierra Leone and an Australian-awarded scholarship recipient pursuing her Masters of Art degree specializing in Gender and Women's Studies at Flinders University Adelaide Australia.
As an Australian -awarded African scholarship recipient, Mrs. Kanu's returning home served a dual purpose – to participate in the National Commission for Democracy's (NCD) signature "Face-to-Face with Democracy" outreach programme and piloting her own Reintegration Action Plan.
The Reintegration Action Plan is a strategic community-level project designed to translate her academic insights into practical democratic and inclusive frameworks, set to be fully implemented upon the completion of her studies. Fully approved by both the National NCD and her academic scholarship sponsors, the initiative seamlessly bridges theoretical research in gender and social inclusion with grassroots democratic participation.
This fieldwork highlights the vital role of international scholarship programs in empowering professionals to drive tangible, community-led development upon their return to their countries.
On the 5th February 2026, Mrs. Kanu, Mr. Kargbo and their driver travelled to Mabonkeni Village, Safroko Chiefdom with Lamin Kargbo, age 36, resident of Moiglja Drive, Freetown, Communications Officer and their driver were assaulted in the line of duty.
Makeni City, Bombali District Northern Sierra Leone is regarded as a political stronghold of the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party, and homeland of the country's former President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma who was recently granted amnesty for his alleged involvement in a failed coup in November 2023.
In July 2020, protest broke out in Makeni following the governing Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) decision to relocate a standby electricity generator to Lungi, Port Loko District.
Residents viewed the move as a threat to electricity supply leading to a fatal protest. At least five protesters were killed when security forces intervened during the unrest. Other reports suggested that the death toll may have reached six according to Media Foundation for West Africa, and other sources.
Civil society organizations and human rights advocates have repeatedly questioned why no one has been prosecuted in connection with the deaths.
At the same time, government officials have argued that security personnel were responding to a rapidly deteriorating situation characterized by violence, destruction of property and attacks on public facilities. Authorities subsequently pledged to investigate the incident, though critics maintained that the victims' families are still waiting for meaningful accountability.
The case remains a prominent example cited by rights advocates who argue that the state must do more to ensure accountability whenever lethal force is used against civilians by members of the security sector.
Mrs. Kanu who was speaking through an interpreter on the need for reintegration, stressed the need for the protection of girls, women, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) and other minority groups.
Mrs. Kanu appealed to the participants that minority groups have rights too and their rights must be protected and respected for the peaceful coexistence and development of the community.
Mrs. Kanu's comments were deemed antithetical and inimical to the cultural, traditional, religious and social values of the people who wasted no time to launch an instantaneous, coordinated verbal and physical attack against her and her colleagues.
"They were almost lynched, their properties including, laptop computer, mobile phones and other belongings seized by the locals.
An elder said that Mrs. Kanu's way of thinking has been contaminated by western education and she is now being used by westerners to brainwash the locals in their way of life by sowing a seed of discord," an anonymous sour