By Ambassador Teacher
Friday, 7th of March 2025, marked another milestone in the Rokel community of the Western Rural Area district in the outskirt of Freetown as stakeholders warmly welcomed KTLAN in its community engagement session of their advocacy initiative.
The initiative is a Law Advocacy Network (KTLAN) and registered Civil Society Organization (CSO) that advocates and provides public education on three thematic areas/pillars (duties and responsibilities of citizens especially to the state before they ask for their rights, the mandate of Parliamentarians (MPs) to their constituents (people) and the monitoring of local courts for rural development.
According to KTLAN , the idea is not to re-invent any new wheel in the areas identified but intends to provide consistent public education to the extent that society moves along with the desired goal.
For them , the pillars identified have public education gap that they anticipate to fill because with the required education on these pillars, perception of the public will change for the better.
The overarching objective of the advocacy is to realize an informed society on the pillars we operate on, in order for them to make informed decisions.
Its advocacy is done through TV talk Shows, radio discussions and community engagements across the country.
During this engagement at the Rokel community, presentations fron lawyers on key topics like ‘the duties and responsibilities of citizens before they ask for their rights’, ‘the mandate of Parliamentarians to their constituents’ and ‘monitoring local courts for Rural development’. Presenters included Lawyer Ahmed Fonike, Lawyer Henry Thomas, Lawyer Abdulai Kamara and Lawyer Konowa Lansana Jr.
Tese presentations on the topics above touched the crowded hall so much that the questions and answers session took longer than usual as more public education was needed to fill in the gap of ignorance.
In attendance were representative of the Hon. Member of Parliament in constituency 111, Hon Iyamide Langley, the Head Man of the Rokel community, Mr. Mohamed O. Kamara, the pastor, the Imam, councilors, Youth Leader and other stakeholders of the Rokel community.
