Freetown City Council

Last updated

Freetown City Council
Type
Type
History
New session started
May 2018
Leadership
The Mayor/Head of Freetown City Council
The Deputy Mayor/Head of Freetown City Council
Chief Administrator of the Freetown City Council
Festus Kallay
Finance Officer of the Freetown City Council
Madina Bah
Structure
Length of term
4 years
AuthorityLocal Government Act, 2004 [2] [3] [4]
Elections
Last election
March 7, 2018
Next election
2022
Meeting place
Freetown City Hall [5]
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Freetown City Council is the municipal government of the city of Freetown, [6] [7] the capital of Sierra Leone. It was established in 1893 and is one of the oldest municipal governments in Africa. [6] The Freetown City Hall, located on Wallace-Johnson Street, is the meeting place and seat of government of the Freetown City Council. [8]

The city of Freetown is politically divided into three regions: East End Freetown, Central Freetown and the West End of Freetown, which are subdivided into wards. Members of the Freetown city council, including the mayor, are directly elected every four years by the residents of Freetown and they represent different wards throughout the city.

Members of the Freetown City Councils are known as councillors, except the deputy mayor and the mayor, in whom local executive power is vested within the city of Freetown. The City Council, including the mayor, are responsible for the general management of the city of Freetown. The mayor carry out laws pass by the city council. The Freetown City Council is noted for having its own municipal police forces. The current mayor of Freetown is Her Worship Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE of the All People's Congress (APC).

All appointed members by the mayor must be approved by the Freetown City Council before taking office. Since its founding to present, virtually all mayors of Freetown are members of the Creole ethnic group. Freetown City Council politics has been dominated by the All People's Congress party (APC).

The Freetown City Council is one of the most powerful municipal government in Africa. its powers include, but not limited to:

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Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia, and the northern half is surrounded by Guinea. Covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), it has a tropical climate, with environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. It has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. Freetown is the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into 16 districts.

Sierra Leone first became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago. The Limba were the first tribe known to inhabit Sierra Leone. The dense tropical rainforest partially isolated the region from other West African cultures, and it became a refuge for peoples escaping violence and jihads. Sierra Leone was named by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, who mapped the region in 1462. The Freetown estuary provided a good natural harbour for ships to shelter and replenish drinking water, and gained more international attention as coastal and trans-Atlantic trade supplanted trans-Saharan trade.

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References

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