Kenneth Benjamin
Chief Justice of Belize (Retd.) | |
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![]() in 2019 | |
10th Chief Justice of Belize | |
In office 15 September 2011 – 20 March 2020 | |
Nominated by | Dean Barrow |
Appointed by | Colville Young |
Preceded by | Samuel Awich (acting) |
Succeeded by | Michelle Arana (acting) |
Personal details | |
Born | Kenneth Andrew Charles Benjamin 19 March 1955 Georgetown, British Guiana |
Alma mater | University of the West Indies ( LLB), Hugh Wooding Law School |
Kenneth Andrew Charles Benjamin (born 19 March 1955) is a Caribbean jurist. A dual national of Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, he served as Chief Justice of Belize from 15 September 2011 [1] [2] to 20 March 2020. [3]
Benjamin was born on 19 March 1955 [3] in Georgetown, Guyana. [4] In 1980 and 1981, Benjamin served as a magistrate in Georgetown, Guyana. He went on to serve as Assistant Judge Advocate for the Guyana Defence Force. [2] From 1988, he continued his work as a judge in Antigua, including from 1991 to 1993 as Chief Magistrate of Antigua. [2] [5] Following that, he was named as a judge of the High Court of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. [5] In this capacity he served in Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands in the succeeding years. [2] From 2002 to 2007, Benjamin's position as ECSC High Court Judge took him to Grenada; he was succeeded there by Francis Cumberbatch. [5] In 2007, he relocated to St. Lucia to become the presiding judge of the High Court of St. Lucia's criminal division. [2]
In July 2011, following the retirement of Abdulai Conteh, Attorney-General B. Q. Pitts announced that Benjamin would be Belize's new Chief Justice. [2] In the interim, Samuel Lungole Awich served as acting CJ. [6] Pitts indicated his hopes that Benjamin, at the time 56, would be able to hold his position until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. [2] [7]
Benjamin graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago in 1977. He is married and has a daughter and a son. [2]