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Claim: A Facebook post claims that Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella moved from SLPP to APC, NGC, and other political parties, while allegedly still serving as the chairperson and leader of the NGC.
Verdict: Misleading. While it is true that Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella cross-carpeted to different political parties, there is no evidence to suggest he joined the All People’s Congress Party. The APC Secretariat has vehemently denied the claim.
Full Text
Amid political tensions in Sierra Leone following the contested 2023 general elections, an attempted coup, and subsequent high-profile legal and electoral battles, political misinformation seems to be circulating in the country, either targeting political office holders or even originating from them.
A Facebook post (archived here) claims that Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, popularly known as KKY, has moved between several political parties, including the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), the All People’s Congress (APC), the National Grand Coalition (NGC) and EBEMA Movement.
The post also claims that Yumkella remains the Chairman and Leader of the NGC.
Because the post tends to mislead the public about KKY’s political history and current political affiliation, DUBAWA decided to verify the claim.
Verification
Dr Yumkella (KKY) was a member of the SLPP before leaving the party in September 2017 to join the newly formed National Grand Coalition (NGC). He became the NGC’s presidential candidate in the 2018 elections and later served as an NGC member of Parliament and parliamentary leader. Available records do not show that he ever joined the APC.
In August 2023, Yumkella resigned from the NGC, following the 2023 elections, and several reports linked his departure to the possibility of his returning to the SLPP, the party he had previously left.
So was he ever a member of the APC?
To verify the claim, DUBAWA reached out to the APC Secretariat; the information desk said Dr Yumkella was never an APC member.
We also contacted Musa Alimamy Kamara, a worker in Dr Yumkella’s office, to ask about his associations with the APC. He said KKY never joined the APC and was never the Chairman of the NGC party.
DUBAWA also found no reliable evidence showing that Yumkella joined the APC.
His documented political movement was from the SLPP to the NGC, followed by his departure from the NGC and subsequent association with the SLPP. The sources reviewed provide no evidence that he joined the APC.
Conclusion
Dr Yumkella left the SLPP and became a leading figure of the NGC, including serving as its parliamentary leader. He later left the NGC and has since been publicly associated with the SLPP. However, DUBAWA found no credible evidence that KKY ever joined the APC. The claim that KKY joined the APC is misleading.