Boakai Seals City Hall Shake-up as FPA Reported; NPP Chairman Battling Jewel Taylor Lands Gov’t Job

Monrovia — President Joseph Nyuma Boakai has nominated James Kpadeh Mulbah, General Manager of the Roberts International Airport (RIA), as Mayor of the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), confirming a FrontPageAfrica report published Monday that Mulbah was set to take over City Hall.

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By Rodney D. Sieh

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The outgoing mayor, John-Charuk Siafa, has not been shown the door. In the same round of appointments announced Wednesday, November 11, by the Executive Mansion, Siafa was named Officer-in-Charge of the National Insurance Corporation of Liberia (NICOL).

At NICOL, Siafa takes over from Abdullah S. Swaray, who had been holding over as Acting Managing Director. The President extended special appreciation to Swaray for his service, according to the statement signed by Presidential Press Secretary Atty. Kula B.N. Fofana.

What FPA Reported

On Monday, FrontPageAfrica reported that Mulbah was poised to replace Siafa after nearly three years of public criticism of the mayor’s handling of the capital — over piling garbage, unpaid workers and contractors, and allegations of financial irregularities at the MCC.

The report also highlighted Siafa’s long-running defense: that the national government had never given the city corporation the money it needs to do its job.

Mulbah’s nomination requires confirmation by the Liberian Senate, as Siafa’s did in 2024. The Executive Mansion said the nominations and appointments are subject to Senate confirmation where applicable.

From the Airport to City Hall

Mulbah was appointed General Manager of RIA by President Boakai on February 28, 2024. Before government, he was best known as founder and CEO of Green Cities Incorporated, a waste segregation and recycling enterprise.

His name is not new in the race for City Hall. In late 2023, before Boakai’s inauguration, the Liberia Solid Waste Management Association (LISWA) urged the then President-elect to make Mulbah mayor, pointing to his background in sanitation and waste management.

Mulbah joined the ruling Unity Party (UP) in December 2025. He told journalists at the time that the UP was the first political party he had ever joined and that the President’s stance against corruption was a major reason for his decision.

A Rocky Tenure

Siafa, nominated by President Boakai on January 27, 2024, and commissioned in March that year as Monrovia’s 28th mayor, succeeded Jefferson Tamba Koijee with promises to clean the city, restore transparency and depoliticize the MCC. He has been widely reported to be a close relative of the President.

Some of the sharpest attacks on his tenure came from within the ruling party. In September 2025, Queen Johnson, Deputy Director for Records at the National Port Authority and a staunch UP member, publicly called for Siafa’s dismissal, labeling him corrupt and incompetent. In March 2026, another UP loyalist publicly branded the mayor a criminal amid allegations tied to an audit of the MCC.

MCC contractors also protested in front of City Hall on UN Drive over unpaid wages, and civil society groups criticized the dismissal of civil servants as political retaliation.

The mayor had defenders. The Civil Society of Liberia (CSNL) dismissed the corruption claims as propaganda driven by suspended staff and credited Siafa with improving waste management. The MCC has also disputed FrontPageAfrica’s reporting on the deteriorating City Hall, insisting the mayor inherited the facility in ruins.

The Funding Gap Mulbah Inherits

At his first budget hearing in April 2024, Siafa told lawmakers the MCC needed US$11,023,583 to function, including about US$8.2 million from the national government. The 2024 draft budget allotted the MCC US$3,777,965.

The 2026 national budget allocated US$4.5 million to the MCC — still well short of that estimate. In March 2026, Assistant Minister for Development Planning Wellington Barchu pledged to champion dedicated funding for solid waste management in the 2027 budget.

Mulbah is likely to inherit the same dilemma: a capital that residents say is drowning in waste, and a city government that says it has never been given the means to clean it.

A Reward for the NPP Chairman?

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau post appears to have gone to George Sylvester Mulbah, National Chairman of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), who has led the push to replace former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor at the head of the party. The Executive Mansion statement lists the appointee only as “Mr. George Mulbah,” Commissioner.

The appointment comes weeks before the NPP’s December convention. Earlier this month, Mulbah announced there would be no Standard Bearer election there; delegates would instead elect a “political leader.” A senior partisan told FrontPageAfrica that no such post exists in the party’s constitution or by-laws.

Mulbah also declared that every party official had lost tenure — a statement critics read as including Howard-Taylor, who has held the Standard Bearer post.

Howard-Taylor, Vice President from 2018 to 2024, faces drug charges in Liberia’s widening cocaine-trafficking investigation, which she denies. Her case is on the docket of Criminal Court “C” as the courts’ November Term opens this week.

A group calling itself the Concerned Partisans of the NPP (CP-NPP) has demanded that the convention be postponed, warning that holding it now could feed perceptions that Howard-Taylor’s prosecution is politically motivated. The group has also alleged a push to hand the party to Vice President Jeremiah Koung.

Questions about Mulbah’s ties to the government predate Wednesday’s announcement. In September, CDC Secretary General Jefferson Koijee, Siafa’s predecessor at City Hall, publicly demanded that Mulbah say whether he holds a senior position in Vice President Koung’s office while leading the NPP.

Other Appointments

The President’s announcement also covered the following positions:

* Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Hon. Stephen J. H. Zargo and Hon. Jeremiah Solunteh, Ambassadors-Designate

* Ministry of Local Government: Mr. Wesley D. M. Nyenatoh, Sr., Superintendent, River Gee County; Mr. Elijah G. Freeman, Superintendent, Grand Cape Mount County. Outgoing Grand Cape Mount Superintendent Foley Kiatamba is to be reassigned.

* Ministry of Commerce and Industry: Mr. Ceebee C. D. Barshell, Deputy Minister for Public Services

* Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau: Mr. George Mulbah, Commissioner

* Agricultural and Industrial Training Bureau: Hon. Mike T. Swengbe, Deputy Director General for Technical Services

* Independent National Commission on Human Rights: Following vetting by the Chief Justice, Cllr. Philomena T. Williams, Mr. Shiwoh Kamara, Mr. Domah Cooper and Cllr. Mohammed E. Fahnbulleh (re-nominated) as Commissioners, filling four vacancies.

President Boakai urged the new officials to discharge their duties with integrity, professionalism and dedication, keeping the interests of the Liberian people at the center of their work.