Based on the 2021 national mid-term census, Kenema has a population of 255,110. making it the second most populous city in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

after

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

, and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province. Kenema City servers as capital of

Kenema District Kenema District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Kenema, which is the third most populous city in Sierra Leone, after Freetown and Bo. Tongo is the second most populous city in the district. ...

and is a major

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

hub in the Eastern Province. Kenema is located approximately 200 miles from

, and south of Bo. Kenema is one of Sierra Leone's most ethnically diverse cities. Like most parts of Sierra Leone, the

Krio language The Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is the lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, ...

of the

Sierra Leone Creole people The Sierra Leone Creole people () are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of Sierra Leone be ...

is by far the most widely spoken language in Kenema. Kenema is governed by a directly elected

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

, headed by a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

in whom

executive authority The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

is vested, and who is responsible for the city's general management. The mayor and council members are elected every four years. Kenema's current mayor is Thomas Karimu Baio of the Sierra Leone People's Party

. Karimu Baio was elected mayor with 79.4% of the vote in the 2018 Kenema Mayoral electio

. Kenema is an overwhelming political stronghold of the

Sierra Leone People's Party The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, along with its main political rival the All People's Congress (APC). It has been the ruling party in Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. The SLPP d ...

, the current national

ruling party The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...

in Sierra Leone. As in the rest of Sierra Leone,

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

is by far the city's most popular sport. The

Kamboi Eagles The Kamboi Eagles Football Club commonly known as Kamboi Eagles, is a Sierra Leonean football club based in Kenema City, Sierra Leone, currently a member of the Sierra Leone National Premier League, the highest division of football league in Sie ...

, a professional football club based in Kenema, represents the city in the

Sierra Leone National Premier League Sierra Leone National Premier League is a professional football league in Sierra Leone. It was founded in 1967. The league is sponsored by Leone Rock Metal Group. East End Lions and Mighty Blackpool are the two biggest and most successful clubs ...

. Kenema is known as the hometown of some of Sierra Leone's greatest international soccer stars, including the country's most widely known athlete, retired soccer star

Mohamed Kallon Mohamed Kallon Order of the Rokel, MOR (born 6 October 1979) is a Sierra Leonean association football, football manager and former player who is the manager of the Sierra Leone national football team. He was a striker and played for Inter Milan f ...

. Other notable Sierra Leonean international footballers from Kenema include the country's current top striker,

Kei Kamara Kei Ansu Kamara (; born 1 September 1984) is a Sierra Leonean professional footballer who plays as a striker for FC Cincinnati. He is one of 13 players to have scored 100 goals in MLS history, achieving the landmark in 300 appearances. He is ...

, and retired soccer stars

Paul Kpaka Paul Kpaka (born 7 August 1981) is a Sierre Leonean former professional footballer who played as a striker. Early life Paul Kpaka was born into the Sherbro Rogers family in Kenema, the third largest city in Sierra Leone. He is a member of th ...

Kemokai Kallon Kemokai Kallon (born 17 March 1972 in Kenema, Sierra Leone) is a Sierra Leonean former professional footballer who played as a centre-back for Kallon F.C. He is the older brother of the Sierra Leonean international footballer Mohamed Kallon and ...

and

Musa Kallon Musa Kallon (born 8 April 1970) is a Sierra Leonean football coach and former player. He is the older brother of Sierra Leonean international footballers Mohamed Kallon, and Kemokai Kallon. Playing career Club Kallon was born in Kenema, Si ...

. Kenema's growth was originally promoted by the

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckscarpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. C ...

industries, which were linked to the city by the now-closed

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. Since then, its economy has benefited from the

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

mines first discovered in the area in 1931.

2014 Ebola outbreak

Kenema was the origin and first place in Sierra Leone to report

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

Government

The city of Kenema is one of Sierra Leone's six

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and is governed with a

form of government, which is headed by a

, in whom

is vested. The mayor is responsible for the general management of the city. The mayor is elected directly by the residents of Kenema in a municipal election held every four years. The current mayor of Kenema is Joseph Samba Keifala, a member of the

(SLPP), who won the 2012 Kenema Mayorship election with 74.99%, defeating his main opponent Ishmail Sesay of the APC, who took 19.36%. Kenema is a political stronghold of the SLPP party, the main opposition party in Sierra Leone. In Presidential elections, Kenema has voted for the

by a vast majority of over 70%.

Demographics

Kenema is the third largest city in Sierra Leone. one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Sierra Leone. The city is home to all of the country's ethnic groups, though the

Mende people The Mende are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone; their neighbours, the Temne people, constitute the largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, ethnic group at 35.5% of the total population, which is slightly larger than the Mende ...

make up the largest ethnic group.

Education

As in the rest of Sierra Leone, Kenema has an education system with six years of primary school (Class 1-6), and six years of secondary school (Form 6-12); secondary schools are further divided into Junior secondary school (Form 1-3) and Senior secondary school (Form 4-6). Primary schools usually start from ages 6 to 12, and secondary schools usually start from ages 13 to 18. Primary Education is free and compulsory in government-sponsored public schools. Prominent schools in Kenema include the

Kenema Government Secondary School Kenema Government Secondary School is a government-sponsored all boys secondary school located in Kenema, Sierra Leone. The school was founded in 1952 by the Sierra Leone government to educate the children of Kenema. The school is regarded as one ...

(GSSK), Holy Trinity Secondary School, Ahmadiyya Secondary School, Holy Rosary Secondary School, Islamic Secondary School, and the Kamboi Lebanese International School. The Eastern Technical University (ETU) situated at the main Combema Road is the highest learning institution in the city, offering certificates and degree courses.

Health

Kenema and Bo are endemic areas for a highly contagious tropical hemorrhagic fever known as

Lassa fever Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever, is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus. Many of those infected by the virus asymptomatic, do not develop symptoms. When symptoms occur they typically include fever, wea ...

. The

Kenema Government Hospital Based on the 2021 national mid-term census, Kenema has a population of 255,110. making it the second most populous city in Sierra Leone after Freetown, and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province. Kenema City servers as capital of Ken ...

is the centre of an international effort to combat the disease with support from the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

(WHO) and UNAMSIL. New laboratories to improve rapid diagnosis are being installed at the hospital, which admits between 250 and 500 suspected cases per year. In 2020, the World Health Organization secured a €500,000 grant from the

German Corporation for International Cooperation German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...

to increase

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

testing capacity in Sierra Leone, which was already taking place at the Kenema Government Hospital. Response to COVID-19 at the hospital is challenging, because of shortfalls in protective gear for workers and due to labor strikes by hospital workers who have not received salary.

Transportation

Local car taxis, tricycles (Kekeh), and motor bike taxis called Okada. The city is served by the

Kenema Airport Kenema Airport is an airport located in Kenema, the third largest of Sierra Leone. The airport is mostly used for domestic aircraft to the city. It is the largest and most important airport in Kenema District as well as one of the busiest airpor ...

Sport

As in the rest of the country, football is by far the most popular sport in Kenema. The city's most popular football club is the

which plays in the

, the top football league in country.

Media

The five main radio stations in Kenema are Eastern Radio 101.9, Radio Nongowa - SPIN FM 101.3, City Radio 103.3, Starline Radio 98.4 and Sierra Leone's national radio and television stations, SLBS TV, and SLBS Radio are on the air in Kenema. The

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...

, and several other international stations are on the air in Kenema on

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

only.

Notable people

, footballer * Emmerson, musician * Professor David John Francis, Chief Minister of the Republic of Sierra Leone *

, footballer *

Alpha Lansana Alpha Sumoi Lansana (born October 14, 1980) is a Sierra Leonean international footballer who currently plays as a defender for Kamboi Eagles in the Sierra Leone National Premier League. Lansana is a regular member of the Sierra Leone national foo ...

, footballer *

Brima Sesay Brima Sesay (born 27 January 1981 in Kenema, Sierra Leone – died on April 4, 2009) nicknamed Small Attouga, was a Sierra Leonean international goalkeeper. Sesay played for Ports Authority F.C. in the Sierra Leone National Premier League and fo ...

, footballer *

, football manager * Dr Salia Jusu-Sheriff, former vice president of Sierra Leone and first West African chartered accountant *

J. B. Dauda Joseph Bandabla Dauda (24 December 1942. – 1 June 2017) widely known as J. B. Dauda, was a Sierra Leonean politician. He was Second Vice-President of Sierra Leone, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from November 1991 to April 1992 ...

, a former Sierra Leonean politician * Amadou Bakayoko, professional footballer, formerly with United Kingdom Championship Coventry City, now playing as striker with EFL League One team Forest Green Rovers and playing for Sierra Leone national team

Gallery

File:Street_in_Kenema_01.jpg File:Street_in_Kenema_02.jpg File:Street_in_Kenema_03.jpg File:CIASierraLeoneKenema.jpg

References

External links

The Kenema District Association
{{Kenema District Populated places in Sierra Leone Eastern Province, Sierra Leone