South Fulton, Georgia Mayor Khalid Kamau — who once went by the name Mayor Khalid but apparently goes by the name Mayor Kobi now — likes to tell people he's "America's first Black Lives Matter organizer elected to public office." It's even a part of his official bio on the city's website, complete with a hashtag, odd lowercase spelling, and somewhat racist mission statement:
America's first #BlackLivesMatter organizer elected to public office, Mayor khalid (pronounced cuh-LEED) is leading a generation of young activists from protests to politics. This self-proclaimed Elected Activist has been featured by CBS, The Nation, Jacobin, Governing Magazine and other national media.
With a population that is 92 percent African-American, South Fulton, Georgia is now the blackest big city in America. khalid is a mission to make America's Blackest City Black. On Purpose — which means a city that is not just unapologetic about its demographics, but moving on purpose to be a laboratory for economic, housing and restorative justice policies aimed at improving the lives of African Americans.
Of course, we all know by now that BLM leaders are the griftiest of grifters, and if the accusations prove correct, Kamau is following in their footsteps. But rather than donations, he's doing it with public funds. Specifically, he's doing it with $26,000 worth of public funds.
Members of the public in South Fulton, along with City Councilwoman Helen Willis, believe Kamau used a city-issued card to make what appears to be thousands of dollars of personal purchases between October and December 2024. According to WSB-TV, he used the card for multiple Amazon purchases, a $1,300 drone, and travel expenses, including over $5,000 in airplane tickets. Most notably, Kamau spent 20 days in Ghana in December — what's with all these majors going to Ghana lately? — and it's believed that he may have used taxpayer money to fund the trip.
Some of the mayor's trip has been documented on Instagram.
"I wanted to find out if taxpayers paid for this trip,” South Fulton resident Reshard Snellings told a WSB reporter, adding, "We should not be asked to go without something so that our elected officials can travel all over the globe."
That same reporter asked Councilwoman Willis if the trip had anything to do with Kamau's job as mayor, and she said she didn't think so. "We need more economic development here and we don’t need to go to Africa in order for the city to have a multi-business deal," Willis also said, adding that the situation is currently under investigation. Other members of the city council have asked that the mayor make a public statement, but he has yet to do so, even after numerous South Fulton residents packed City Hall last week demanding answers.
Willis also told Atlanta's Fox 5 that city officials have 72 hours to justify any expenses made with the card, but "there are 112 receipts that have not been reconciled or submitted."
Both WSB and Fox 5 say they've reached out to the mayor, who calls himself a "college-educated, community activist and Southern, Black, Christian Socialist," about the allegations, but he hasn't responded.
This is not the first time Kamau has made the local (or national) news. The city council voted no-confidence against him in 2022 when he called the city's well-respected police chief "corrupt" for the way he handled a police officer who was accused of misconduct. In 2023, he was arrested for trespassing and burglary after a homeowner caught him wandering around his house and held him at gunpoint until police arrived.
"Do you know who the f**k I am? I’m the mayor, and I’ll wait for my police to get here and see what happens then," he reportedly said to the homeowner.
He later told local media, "I just wanted to see the house. I do apologize to the owners. I thought it was abandoned." He added, "I hope that the spotlight on our city right now will highlight some of the inequities that have been happening."
Say what?
Incorporated in 2017, South Fulton, which sits south of Atlanta, is a relatively young city, but in its eight short years of existence, it has faced numerous challenges and controversies at the hands of Kamau and others. It seems as if the residents would do better to stand up to their corrupt leadership, which apparently sees them as a social experiment, and its leftist policies, or it's just going to get worse.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member