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Up for sale a RARE! "1st Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands" Peter Kenilorea Hand Signed Newspaper Article.
ES-6945E
Sir
Peter Kenilorea KBE (23 May 1943 – 24 February 2016) was a Solomon Islander politician, officially styled The
Rt Hon. Sir Peter Kenilorea as a member of the Privy
Council of the United Kingdom. He was the first Prime Minister of an
independent Solomon Islands, from 1978-81, and also served a second term from
1984-86. Kenilorea was born in Takataka village on Malaita island, of 'Are'are ethnicity. He was trained as a teacher for
the South Seas Evangelical
Church and a co-founder of the Solomon
Islands Christian Association. As a young man he helped to found
the Solomon Islands United
Party. In the 1973 general
elections he ran in the 'Are'are constituency,
losing to David
Kausimae. By the time of the 1976
elections the constituency was split and Kenilorea was elected
to Parliament in the East 'Are'are constituency.
He became Chief Minister of the Solomon Islands in the same year and led the
country to independence from Britain in 1978. He then served as the first Prime
Minister of the Solomon Islands until 1981, and again from 1984
to 1986. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1988 to 1989 and from
1990 to 1993. Following fighting between the Malaita Eagle Force and
the Isatabu Freedom Movement, Kenilorea was, along with Paul Tovua, co-chairman of the peace talks, and he became
Chairman of the eight-member Peace Monitoring Council, which was created in
August 2000. In the Seventh Parliament, which sat from 2001 to 2005, he
was Speaker of Parliament. He
was a candidate for the post of Governor-General in
mid-June 2004, but he received only 8 of 41 votes in Parliament, placing second
behind Nathaniel Waena, who
received 27 votes.[4] Following the 2006 general
election, he was re-elected as Speaker of Parliament without
opposition in April 2006. He held the position until 2010. He
subsequently sought to return to Parliament, and was an unsuccessful candidate
in a by-election in East
'Are'are in August 2012. He died on 24 February 2016 of natural causes. Kenilorea's
son Peter Kenilorea Jr. was
elected a member of parliament in April 2019.