Kenneth Benjamin (judge)

Benjamin was born 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]