Pendembu is a town in Kailahun District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The town population was 7,243 at the 2004 census but increased to 20,502 according to a more recent estimate. Pendembu lies approximately 36 miles from Kenema and about 235 east of Freetown. Pendembu is a trade center and is one of the main towns in Eastern Sierra Leone.

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.