By Fatou Sillah
Bineh Marong, the former Women and Children’s Representative and current Farmers’ Representative at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), testified before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday.
In her testimony, Marong described her first tenure, during which she reached out to women through lady councillors and ward representatives, who assisted in organizing community women. She shared that the women expressed concerns, particularly about waste disposal challenges, revealing that high costs and inadequate waste collection left some women resorting to digging holes at home to dispose of waste.
“I took it to the council because I cannot do it alone, but with the support of my colleagues, we have a general council where I made my presentation after the tour. This was a concern to all, and the councillors supported the problems from the women, and we acted on them, and the mayor also said yes, we have to do something about this problem. This was the way I represented the women, and It was a success because we brought in trucks that collect waste,” she said.
Marong, a former member of KMC’s accounts committee, also addressed questions about the committee’s operations. She noted that the committee meetings were irregular due to the absence of people required to submit documents. She testified that while the committee submitted recommendations to the council, there was limited follow-through.
“I don’t think the Council did enough. If something is not going right, you need to do something about it,” she said.
Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez questioned her, saying, “I think the Council should have done more to strengthen your committee to ensure the findings and recommendations of the auditors would be acted on.” Marong agreed.
She also testified to being part of a 25-day market exercise alongside 26 other councillors. She mentioned that she was assigned to Bakau Market, with Old Bakau-Cape Point Councillor Lamin Dibba as the team leader. She confirmed that she received payments for her participation and was involved in the exercise for the full 25 days.
The witness recalled only Councillor Lamin Dibba but stated that she could not remember signing in every day, as there were times she arrived at the field late.
The lead council referred to Councillor Karamo Ceesay’s testimony, who served as the exercise supervisor and claimed that everyone had signed in on the same day. However, the witness maintained that she signed on different days and affirmed that the exercise indeed took place.