Kailahun

Kailahun Kailahun, Sierra Leone
Kailahun Government Hospital at its reopening in 2004
Coordinates: 8°16′38″N 10°34′26″W / 8.27722°N 10.57389°W / 8.27722; -10.57389
Country	Sierra Leone
Province	Eastern Province
District	Kailahun District
Government
• Town Chief of Kailahun	Alpha Ndoleh [1]
Elevation	303 m (994 ft)
Population (2013)
• Total	30,411
Time zone	GMT (UTC0)

Kailahun is the capital of Kailahun District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Kailahun is a major business and commercial center of Kailahun District. The population was 13,108 in the 2004 census, a 2006 estimate of 18,411 [2] and a current estimate of about 30,411. Kailahun lies in the far east of Sierra Leone, approximately 320 miles east of Freetown; and about 75 miles north east of Kenema.[3].

Kailahun is a trade center, and is one of the major towns in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The population of Kailahun is largely from the Mende ethnic group.

The town is home to Kailahun district council and the District Council Hall. As of 2008 Maada Alpha Ndoleh is the town chief of Kailahun. Kailahun, along with the entire Kailahun District is governed with a district council form of government, which is headed by a District Council Chairman, who is responsible for the general management of the town and for seeing that all local and national laws are enforced. The District Council Chairman is elected directly by the residents of the district of Kailahun. The current chairman of Kailahun district council is Tom Nyuma of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). Nyuma won the July 2008 Sierra Leone local council elections in a landslide with 75% of the vote. The candidate of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) came in distance second, followed by the candidate of the All People's Congress (APC). Nyuma replaced fellow SLPP member Augustine Kortu who was the District Council Chairman until July 2008. Kortu is from the minority Kissi ethnic group.