History

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Koidu New Sembehun City Council as it is called today was one time referred to as Koidu Town Council. As a sub-government institution, it came into being around 1964, and was managed by a Committee of Management (CoM). The Committee of Management oversaw the council's operations from 1964 until 2004, at which point Koidu Town received city status. It was during this era that the name changed to Koidu New Sembehun City Council.
As the name implies, Koidu lies within the circumference of Koidu and New Sembehun, the headquarters towns of the central chiefdoms of Gbense and Tankoro, respectively. It constitutes approximately 80% of the total land area of the two chiefdoms.More importantly, the council is situated in the cosmopolitan headquarters of Kono District in Eastern Sierra Leone.It borders with Nimikoro on the southwest and Kamara on the northwest.It is a waterlogged settlement with extensive marshes or swamplands. Within the City, there is sparsely distributed vegetation: tree crops, grassland and shrubs. Due to the intensive and extensive mining activities, there are vast stretches of wasteland and large deposits of sand within the township.
In the city the Mayor who was elected through adult suffrage is the head of entity and therefore responsible for ensuring the overall development of the city under his jurisdictions. With a Deputy Mayor, the political leaders are supported by councilors. Each councilor is representing a Ward and is similarly elected after every five years by local citizens of the city. The political wing comprises of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and fifteen (15) councilors all elected from three ( 3) multi-member wards. There is a professional wing of the council that is headed by the Chief Administrators (CA), literally as the Chief Executive Officer. With a deputy, the CA delivers its duty through a team of core professional staff, namely: Development Planning Officer (DPO) who leads all development initiatives within the local council system; Finance Officer responsible for managing the finances; Procurement Officer, responsible for the purchase of items and plays a pivotal role in the award of contracts; Monitoring Officer; Gender Officer; Resident Technical Facilitator (RTF), and support personnel. This team works closely with the council through the Mayor and his Deputy to deliver needed services in the city. In the decentralization arrangements and to bring development to the doorstep of the citizens, the central government has in accordance with the 2004 Decentralization Act as amended in 2022, devolved some strategic ministries, including Education, Health, and Social services, Water and Sanitation and Agriculture. These devolved ministries are part of the council and therefore accountable to the City Council. Funds from the central government for the delivery of services in these devolved sectors are transferred to the councils for onward disbursement to the sectors. For each devolved sector, there is an oversight committees comprising of selected councilors combined with sector professionals. Again, it ensures effective and efficient accountability to the people of Sierra Leone.