Accomplished Caribbean jurist, Justice Kenneth Andrew Charles Benjamin, a dual Guyana and Antigua citizen, has been named to take up his new appointment as Belize’s Chief Justice on September 15, 2011.

He will take over from Acting Chief Justice Samuel Awich, who has been serving in that position since former Chief Justice, Dr. Abdulai Conteh of Sierra Leone, was retired by the Barrow administration upon reaching 65 years of age last September. Conteh is now serving in The Bahamas.

Attorney General B. Q. Pitts announced Benjamin’s appointment via press release on Tuesday, July 26, 2011.

“His vast experience has witnessed his dedication as a jurist from the time of his graduation from the Hugh Wooding Law School in 1977 to present – thirty-three years ago,” the AG’s release said.

Since 2007, Benjamin has been serving as presiding judge of the criminal division in the High Court of St. Lucia, which is his last posting before taking up his appointment as Chief Justice of Belize.

Justice Benjamin is also a husband and a father and is married with 2 children, both over eighteen years of age. His daughter is employed as a technical trade officer at the EU-CARICOM Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit in Antigua/Barbuda, and his son has just completed an Associate Degree program in Business Studies at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in Saint Lucia.

Benjamin is an experienced judicial officer, having served up to the level of appellate courts, and an accomplished judicial educator, having participated in training for judicial officers, prosecutors, and court personnel.

Fifty six year old Justice Benjamin has also served on the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. He sat in 2003 with the Appellate Court in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and in 2004 in St. Lucia.

Across the jurisdictions of Antigua/Barbuda, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, and Saint Lucia, he has also served in the capacity of High Court judge.

He was the Chief Magistrate in Antigua & Barbuda in 1991-1993. He has also served in Guyana, his other home, as both magistrate and attorney-at-law in private practice, appearing in civil and criminal matters.

Benjamin served from 1980 and 1981 as magistrate in Georgetown, Guyana. In the 1980s, he also served as Assistant Judge Advocate for the Guyana Defence Force. He sat with Military Tribunals as Judge-Advocate to Courts-Martial, advised on matters of sentencing under the Defence Act, and rendered summation of cases to Courts-Martial.

He has heard appeals of both civil and criminal matters from the High Court and Magistrates’ Court.

While serving as revising officer of the Electoral Office of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda between 1991 and 1993, Benjamin attended an electoral conference and participated as an observer at national elections in Guatemala.

In 1977, Justice Benjamin obtained his Certificate of Legal Education from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. He also received his LLB (Hons) – Bachelor of Laws, from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, in 1977.

He is a member of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association, a former Rotarian, and a former cricket executive in Antigua.