Published: August 18, 2026
MONROVIA — Thirteen former senior government officials, including a former foreign minister and a former mayor of Monrovia, will stand trial over the alleged diversion of 25,054 bags of rice that Saudi Arabia donated to Liberian disaster victims, after all 13 pleaded not guilty Monday before Criminal Court ‘C’.
The pleas, entered at the First Judicial Circuit in Montserrado County, leave the government to prove a case prosecutors put at US$425,918 and to establish that officials across four agencies moved humanitarian rice outside the authority the law gave them.
The defendants, identified in the indictment by the positions they held when the rice was received and distributed, are former Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah; former General Services Agency Director-General Mary T. Broh, who also served as mayor of Monrovia; former Internal Affairs Minister Varney A. Sirleaf; former Deputy Foreign Minister for Administration Thelma E. Sawyer; former Deputy Internal Affairs Minister for Administration Momolu Johnson; former National Disaster Management Agency Executive Director Henry O. Williams; former NDMA Deputy Director for Operations Augustine Tamba; former NDMA Director for Disaster Victims Augustine M. Kollie; former NDMA Communications Director Archievego M. Doe; former NDMA Logistics Officer Rosetta L. Gbassay Bowah; former NDMA employee Edward S. Konneh; former GSA Deputy Director for Operations Edris Bility; and former GSA Assistant Director Mamie Davies.
The government received 29,412 bags of 25-kilogram rice from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2023 for disaster victims and vulnerable communities, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege 25,054 of those bags were diverted from that purpose through unauthorized transfers and distributions, including the movement of 13,895 bags to a GSA warehouse.
The indictment alleges Kemayah, Broh, Sirleaf, Sawyer and others took part in meetings and decisions concerning the rice, that several defendants exceeded their official authority by involving themselves in its movement and distribution outside the statutory mandate of the NDMA, and that the defendants collectively interfered with the distribution.
The charges include economic sabotage, theft of property, misapplication of entrusted property, abuse of office and criminal conspiracy, among other offenses contained in the indictment.
The Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce and the Ministry of Justice have said the prosecution is part of the government’s broader effort to recover allegedly misappropriated public assets and hold former officials accountable.
The defendants are presumed innocent unless the prosecution proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Jury selection was underway Monday at Criminal Court ‘C’. The jurors selected are to be sequestered.
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