By Emma Black
On Thursday, April 10, 2025, Hon. Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Yumkella stood shoulder-to-shoulder with NaCSA Commissioner Ernest Ndomahina, Health Minister Dr. Austin Demby, and SLPP Regional Chairman Hon. Manso Dumbuya in Kambia District, flipping the switch on a trio of life-changing projects. Spanning Kawula, Tonkoh, and Kukuna chiefdoms, these initiatives new health posts, school upgrades, and clean water points are set to ease daily struggles for thousands.
This is President Bio’s vision in action, Yumkella told cheering locals in Kawula, Better health, education, and water aren’t just projects they’re promises kept, he hailed NaCSA’s grit and gave a nod to Finance Minister Ahmed Sheku Fantamadi Bangura, whose funding muscle made it happen, we’re building a Sierra Leone that works for all, he added.
Yumkella’s Kambia stop capped a whirlwind week. Monday saw him in Port Loko and Lungi, inspecting energy sites. Wednesday, he was in Kono, pushing solar grids. By Thursday, Kambia’s dusty roads felt his boots as he rallied communities, I’m energized, he said, fresh off a five-hour huddle with Bio and Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, dissecting Feed Salone’s food security push and energy reforms, this isn’t talking; it’s delivery.
In Tonkoh, a new clinic gleamed ready to cut treks to distant hospitals. Kukuna’s water pumps, now flowing, spare women hours hauling buckets. Kawula’s revamped school promises kids a shot at brighter futures, these are game-changers, said Fatmata Sesay, a Kukuna mother. My daughter won’t grow up thirsty or sick.
Kambia, home to over 340,000, has long wrestled with creaky infrastructure clinics too far, wells too dry. Yumkella, a development titan with decades steering global energy policy, sees these projects as sparks for bigger fires, health fuels learning, water frees time, education lifts dreams, he said. Posts on X buzzed with praise, one user calling him KKY the doer, not the talker.
The timing’s no accident. Bio’s administration, eyeing 2030 goals, is doubling down on rural roots healthcare access, literacy, food security. NaCSA’s projects, backed by millions from Freetown’s coffers, aim to close gaps that keep villages stuck. Yumkella’s role bridging policy to people makes him a linchpin.
As dusk fell over Kambia’s fields, Yumkella’s words lingered This is just the start, with more chiefdoms on his radar and energy grids to light, he’s a man in motion carrying Bio’s agenda, yes, but also a vision of Sierra Leone where no one’s left parched or powerless. One pump, one classroom at a time, Kambia’s proof the tide’s turning.