Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu

Leeroy Wilfred Kabs Kanu (born 7 March 1954), also known as Kabs Kanu or Kabs, is an American Christian Reverend, journalist, and newspaper publisher. He is a former high school English teacher, school principal, and lecturer of Educational Psychology. Between 2009 and 2018, he served as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations and Coordinator of the African Union Committee of 10. He worked under the presidency of former President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone.

Kabs Kanu is also owner and the editor-in-chief of Cocorioko Newspaper, an American-based Sierra Leanean newspaper that is very supportive of the All People's Congress, Sierra Leone's main opposition party.

Early life, family and education Leeroy Wilfred Kabs Kanu was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. His father was Pa Lamina Kanu of the Loko people from Gbendembu, Sierra Leone and his mother, Mammie Yaebu Kanu, also a Loko from the same Chiefdom, was a stay at home mom who raised seven children. He has celebrated 40 years of marriage with Tigidankay B. Kanu, a Director of nursing (long-term care facility), who is also a pastor and co-founder of Covenant Child World Ministry, their church in Somerset, New Jersey, the United States. They have four children together and Kabs Kanu also has a daughter from a previous relationship.

Kabs Kanu attended Christ the King College in Bo, Sierra Leone and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, History, and Sociology at the University of Sierra Leone. He also holds a master's degree in Educational psychology, Special Education, a Theology degree from "Life Bible School" in Kakata, Liberia and he read law at the University of London. He also took a Clinical Pastoral Training course at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital's Pastoral Education Department where he qualified as a Clinical Pastor who ministers to and counsels patients. He served as "CPE Chaplain" in the hospital for two years, under the directorship of the late Dr. John De Velder.

Career University of Sierra Leone alumni students including Ernest Bai Koroma had acknowledged that Cocorioko Newspaper was first published in 1973 when Kabs Kanu was a student at the University. Some Sierra Leonean newspaper publishers had also said that the first newspaper started with a revolutionary students' union government which was led by one Boubacar Njai-Bahled, an influential student at the campus. Others have affirmed that Kabs was the Minister of Propaganda in that student's government. To them, Ccocorioko Newspaper was the voice of that students' union when they were involved in what they described as a "battle of wits and supremacy with the college administration and political powers in the country."

Kabs Kanu became a High School teacher and a school principal at the United Muslim Association Secondary School in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was also a teacher at "Technical School" at Congo Cross, Freetown and wrote for THE TABLET Newspaper, an established publication in the country at that time.

Kabs Kanu studied at the University of Phoenix (Jersey City campus) for his Master of Arts degree in Special Education. He was a Special Education teacher at the Franklin Township Board of Education, serving the Franklin Middle School and the Franklin High School by teaching students with learning, emotional and behavioral challenges. He revived his newspaper from college, (Cocorioko Newspaper) in 2002 in conjunction with his job as a teacher in Somerset, New Jersey. According to AllAfrica.com, Kabs Kanu resumed publishing his newspaper online at "Leonenet – UMBC," which was the first Sierra Leone discussion forum set up at the advent of the internet, by Claude Meama- Kajue.

He engaged with the national and global Press, public affairs, departments of Commerce, and Tourism to rebrand Sierra Leone's globally tarnished image after the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War. His mandate was a new All People's Congress government initiative that was designed to change the international perception and image of not only the people of Sierra Leone but Sierra Leone itself which at the time was best known for civil war, genocide and conflict diamonds. He also facilitated President Koroma's other initiatives, such as "Uniting the Diaspora," "the Open Government principle," and "Attitudinal Changes programs."