Chief Justice Komba Kamanda and former Attorney-General Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara engaged in a confrontation during Supreme Court proceedings on October 7 and 8, 2026. The exchange occurred while the court reviewed the Constitutional Amendment Bill. During the session, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara stated, "My Lord, tell me what you want me to say and I will say it." Chief Justice Komba Kamanda replied, "Am I the one to tell you what to say?" Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara then remarked, "I am entirely in your hands." As the proceedings concluded, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara addressed the courtroom, saying, "Members of the Bar, I’ll be back." The interaction between the two officials remains a focal point of the ongoing legal discourse regarding judicial authority in Sierra Leone.
Confrontation in the Supreme Court
Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara issued a formal apology and retracted the statements he made during the October 7 proceedings on the morning of October 8, 2026. This action followed a direct prompt from Chief Justice Komba Kamanda, who demanded the withdrawal of the remarks recorded the previous day.
Chief Justice Komba Kamanda did not accept the retraction as a conclusion to the matter. He ordered Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara to remove his wig and move from the legal bench to the dock. Immediately following this instruction, the Chief Justice directed police officers present in the courtroom to take Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara into custody and transport him to the Pademba Road Correctional Centre.
Legal authority for this detention is grounded in the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone. Section 120(5) of the document explicitly empowers the Superior Court of Judicature to commit persons for contempt. This constitutional provision grants the judiciary the power to address conduct deemed disruptive or disrespectful to the proceedings of the court.
Further legal basis for the deprivation of liberty is found in Section 17(1)(c) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone. This section permits the state to restrict an individual’s freedom when that action occurs in the execution of a lawful order issued by a superior court on grounds of contempt. The detention of Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara at the Pademba Road Correctional Centre remains in effect under these constitutional mandates.
