Just a day before he was due to release his manifesto, Sierra Leonean presidential contender Samura Kamara was busy writing in depth about the West African country’s justice system.

Hunched over his computer, he was bashing away at what looked like an endless block of dense text.

Often described as a meticulous technician, Kamara, 72, is standing for the second time in a row for the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) in Saturday’s election.

He was also secretary of state for finance in 1996 under a junta led by incumbent President Julius Maada Bio.

Although lacking a high profile outside the APC and the natural charisma of his predecessor Ernest Bai Koroma, Kamara was handpicked by him to contest the 2018 election — which he narrowly lost to Bio in a runoff.

“He’s not like a politician as we know them in Africa — he’s a technical man,” said one longtime friend.

When asked about the economy in an interview with AFP, Kamara’s response was 25 minutes long and chock-full of data going back decades.

“Now it’s time for me to move away from a chief finance officer to (being) a chief executive officer,” he told AFP in the interview.

– Corruption trial –

Kamara has pledged to revamp Sierra Leone’s agricultural and mining sectors, reverse the outflow of foreign exchange and restore confidence in the currency and in local economic institutions.

He and his party have repeatedly lambasted the election commission for irregularities and delays, fuelling speculation they are laying the ground for a court challenge -– a tactic both parties have used in the past.

According to a June 14 poll by the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR),Kamara is forecast to lose to Bio in the first round.

In December 2021, Kamara was charged with misappropriating more than $2.5 million in public funds in a case relating to the planned refurbishment of a New York consulate while he was foreign minister.

The trial, which he says is politically motivated, reopened in February shortly after he was elected the APC’s presidential candidate.

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, a prominent APC member running for a second term as Freetown mayor, first met Kamara in 2010 when she was a private citizen working on a hotel investment project.

“He was minister of finance and he was really professional,” she said.

“The whole machinery of the civil service… there’s a lot of corruption and the government gets stuck, and we were really impressed by the fact that he didn’t let that happen.”

– ‘Tireless’, ‘consultative’ –

As financial secretary, Kamara helped to establish the Anti-Corruption Commission that has now put him on trial.

While finance minister, he oversaw the implementation of a goods and services tax.

“He’s tireless — he can work late and then start again early in the morning,” said one former staffer from the finance ministry who asked not to be named.

“We’d review our work five times before we’d take it to him.”

The former colleague, who is not an APC member but nevertheless felt valued and supported by Kamara, described the politician as “very consultative” and able to set aside politics to get work done.

“In (the) civil service in Sierra Leone… professionals don’t take their time to do their best, they just tick boxes — he doesn’t allow that,” he said.

Friends and former colleagues say that in his downtime, Kamara can be found at the Freetown Dinner Club or on the tennis lawns.

Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, a lawyer and former attorney general under the last APC government, was head of the Anti-Corruption Commission while Kamara was finance minister.

“He managed the ministry of finance quite well at that time — we saw improvements in the audit ratings,” he said.

The current corruption case has frustrated the politician, he said.

“He wants to be there with the people, but he’s always there” in court, he added.

The trial has been adjourned until July 14.

Kamara has promised to accept the results of the presidential election and not to retaliate if he loses.

“Bio and I, we are friends,” he told AFP.

“If we meet, we say hello, hello. We are in the same church. I served him, he knows me, he knows my work.”

sb-prc/kjm