By Aruna Brima
It is no secret that the All People’s Congress (APC) is currently challenged by internal disagreements, many camps and infightings and has very limited time left in its hands for this year’s general elections.
The party needs a National Organizing Secretary who is above the several factions and who will also serve as a moral guarantor to unite the party ahead of the elections. This is where Karamoh Kabba comes in.
Since he joined the APC, Karamoh Kabba has worked hard for the party and against the SLPP with an enviable track record. He has been working with all comrades without regards to tribal, regional or factional backgrounds. Throughout, he has stood above factional and divisive politics. He believes that the greatest enemy is the SLPP; so his strength is to fight the SLPP government not to pick up fight with any APC member.
Karamoh Kabba is one of the very few former government Ministers who stayed and defended the APC after the party lost the 2018 elections. This fearless and devoted man has been arrested and sent to the Pademba Road Correctional Center three times from 2018 to 2022 not because of any act of criminality but because of what he has to say on behalf of the APC.
For instance, on 18 July 2018 he was at Radio Democracy representing the APC in highlighting the failures of and human rights abuses committed by the SLPP government in their first 100 days of bad governance when a truck load of police pulled up at the radio station to arrest him. He would spend 16 days at the filthy CID headquarters. Also, during the Constituency 110 by-election APC rally when lots of APC members were arrested; he went to the Adonkia Police Station, west of the capital Freetown, to help secure their release and was arrested again, molested, beaten, detained and sent to the Pademba Road Correctional Center for 32 days without bail.
In December 2021, Karamoh Kabba spent the Christmas in prison, not by choice but because he was arrested again and sent to prison simply for going to the CID to stand in solidarity with a senior female APC politician who was invited for questioning at the CID for lending her voice to the Mid Term Census debate.
As Deputy Organizing Secretary of the party, Karamoh Kabba provided leadership and his presence was felt in every by-election across the country. After the 2018 elections, while many party stalwarts were scared to represent the party in the media, he was all over the media defending the party and championing its activities and events.
Karamoh represented and contested for the National Secretary General of the All Political Parties’ Association (APPA), he successfully won the election but due to political interference and APPA became a mouthpiece for the SLPP government, he resigned in protest and co-founded the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP), a political movement that served as a strong opposition voice to the SLPP government.
It should be noted that in the 2012 presidential election, Karamoh Kabba served as National Coordinator for the Special Presidential Publicity Committee (SPPC) and secured a resounding victory. He also served in the President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma-led government as Minister of State Eastern Region, Deputy Minister of Political and Public Affairs, National Coordinator for the Open Government Initiatives (OGI), and Director of Political Affairs.
At a time when the All People’s Congress (APC) needs a unifying figure, Karamoh Kabba will be that comrade from Kono District who will be fitted and qualified to be the party’s National Organizing Secretary. He is one of the few dignitaries in the party who is very accessible by the grassroots. He has demonstrated that over the years. Due to his work he has been given so many names by the grassroots (“The Machine” because he is faster in his operations and a workaholic, “De man dem bang am, e die”, a slogan that symbolizes his readiness to defeat the SLPP in one go)
Watch out for Part two