When fire broke out at Kollen Town on the night of January 23, 2022, Dr Samura Kamara was the first political figure to visit the stricken community, commiserated with its victims and promised to visit again with some relief support.
Perched on a small strip of mostly reclaimed land along the Congo Town River, Kolleh Town, which is just a few hundred meters away from the Sewage Treatment Plant at the Kingtom dump site, is a makeshift settlement in Ward 431, Constituency 125 in the West of Freetown. Without clean running water, proper drainage system and toilet facilities, the residents of this vulnerable community were clearly already groaning under the burden of underdevelopment. And then on Sunday, January 23, 2022, at around 20:00hrs, their fragile homes built with sticks and corrugated roofing sheets were gutted out by the merciless inferno.
The victims lost whatever little household items they had and hundreds were rendered homeless.
After his visit to the disaster scene, Samura Kamara instructed his team to carry out a needs assessment to inform his intervention. Today, March 16, 2022, the APC politician returned to Kolleh Town with the promised relief support based on the victims’ felt needs. These include cement, roofing sheets, bales of used clothing and 50kg bags of rice.
One of the beneficiaries, Saibatu Kanneh, 35, recounted that during the fire disaster, her room was completely burnt down and she lost everything in the fire.
“I could not salvage a pin” she emphasized and added: ‘but I was personally touched by the compassion Dr Samura Kamara showed to us when he first visited. I saw that he was genuine and since then, I decided that I would give him my vote.”
Saibatu said she was originally from Daru in the East part of Sierra Leone and her entire family, from her great grandparents to her very self, were staunch supporters of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party but as of the night of that fire disaster, she decided to change her allegiance to the All Peoples Congress. This, she said, was because of the sincerity and genuine compassion she saw in Samura Kamara.
Saibatu is not the only person who appreciates the opposition politician’s approach to the welfare of his compatriots. Samuel Sahr, 55, a Zonal Executive member of the SLPP in the Kolleh Town community said he was particularly impressed by the open – mindedness of Samura Kamara.
“Though I’m a card carrying member of the ruling party and the APC team here is fully aware of my political leanings, I was not discriminated against,” said Samuel. He also explained further that: “The full package given to other victims was given to me and I was told that this was on the insistence of Samura Kamara that all victims, irrespective of their political affiliations, should be covered,” adding that, “This is rare in today’s politics.”
Community members said that to this day, Samura Kamara, who is the front runner in the race to lead the All Peoples Congress (APC) to the polls in 2023, remains the only political figure to have visited the Kolleh Town Community.
