#AfricaCheckFellowship: Sierra Leone’s ‘10-year power swap’ claim – fact or fiction ahead of 2028 election?
- Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, will step down in 2028, prompting early political posturing.
- Bio’s party, the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), and the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) are the only parties to have governed the country since independence.
- While the two parties have each held power for roughly a decade at a time in recent decades, there is no evidence of any agreement requiring them to alternate power every 10 years.
As political manoeuvring intensifies in Sierra Leone over who will succeed president Julius Maada Bio in the 2028 elections, a striking claim is circulating online: that the ruling party and the opposition have a deal to alternate power every 10 years.
The allegation recently gained traction after former diplomat and opposition politician Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-Kanu posted on social media that the British government had even cautioned Bio about honouring this supposed arrangement.
Re-elected in 2023, Bio is set to leave office after completing two terms, in line with constitutional limits.
It is in this context that Kabs-Kanu asserted that power was now set to shift to the opposition.
“I‘ve been told that Maada Bio was called to Britain to be warned that the 10-year -each arrangement must be adhered to seriously,” Kabs-Kanu wrote on Facebook in August 2025. He claimed that this deal was designed to prevent conflict in Sierra Leone, which endured a brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002.
A number of digital media outlets reported onthe claim, even though Kabs-Kanu said that the UK government’s involvement was unconfirmed.
But is there evidence for the claim that Sierra Leone’s two main parties must alternate the presidency every decade? We checked.
Political context
The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) are the only parties to have governed Sierra Leone since independence.
Founded in 1951, the SLPP led the country to independence from Britain in 1961 under Milton Margai.
In 1967 the APC won power. Under president Siaka Stevens the country became a one-party state in 1978, with all other parties outlawed, including the SLPP. The APC remained in control until 1991, when civil war broke out and the military overthrew the government.
The claim about power rotating between parties may be because of the country's political history since the return to multiparty democracy in 1996:
- The SLPP governed from 1996 to 2007 under president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
- The APC then ruled from 2007 to 2018 under president Ernest Bai Koroma.
- The SLPP returned to office in 2018 under Bio.
Each of those periods lasted roughly a decade, creating a coincidental pattern. This perceived regularity may have influenced public expectations and political commentary that frame leadership transitions as part of a schedule rather than the outcomes of electoral competition.
No evidence UK made such push
To assess this claim, we first reviewed the UK high commission’s official website and its official Sierra Leone social media accounts for any statement suggesting the UK weighed in on a power-sharing arrangement between the SLPP and APC. We did not find any.
We also contacted the high commission for clarification but have not yet received a response. We will update this fact-check if we do.
Constitution sets two-term limit for presidents, not parties
We also examined key documents to establish whether a power rotation agreement between the SLPP and APC existed.
Section 46(1) of Sierra Leone’s constitution sets a limit of two five-year terms per president, not per political party. It states: “No person shall hold office as President for more than two terms of five years each, whether or not the terms are consecutive.”
We also reviewed the Lome Peace Agreement, signed in 1999 between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to end hostilities, grant pardons and integrate combatants into political life. The agreement contains no reference to any 10-year rotational power-sharing deal.
Similarly, the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) makes no mention of a requirement for the SLPP and APC to alternate power every decade. The TRC was created to document the causes and events of the conflict and recommend reforms.
While the term “power-sharing” appears in volume 2, chapter 2 (from paragraph 297) of the report, this is not in the context of an SLPP-APC arrangement.
The report notes the failures of power-sharing arrangements with armed factions, such as the RUF, under the Lomé Peace Agreement. This was a short-term solution to end hostilities and not a model for long-term governance between civilian parties.
Claim false, political parties commission says
Dubawa, a West African fact-checking organisation, has also examined the claim, concluding that there is no documentary evidence of any inter-party “10-year rotation” arrangement.
The Political Parties Regulation Commission is responsible for registering, regulating and mediating among political parties in Sierra Leone.
We contacted the commission and asked whether such a power sharing agreement exists. In response, its director of training and external relations, Lucien Momoh, said that the claim was false.
Correction: This report was updated to reflect that president Julius Maada Bio was re-elected in 2023, not 2018.