Solomon Island foreign secretary Kenilorea resigns to contest 2019 polls

Peter Kenilorea Jnr is leaving his permanent secretary job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to contest next year’s national elections.

He will officially vacate office on 29 June 2018 to vie for the East Are’Are Constituency, a seat once held by his late father Sir Peter Kenilorea.

Andrew Manepora’a is currently the MP for East Are’Are.

Kenilorea previously resigned from the United Nations in 2016 to take up the permanent secretary job within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He had been with the UN’s Legal Department for almost 20 years.

Deputy Secretary (External Trade) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Joseph Ma’ahanua confirmed Kenilorea will officially leave the ministry this Friday.

Ma’ahanua said they are going to miss Kenilorea’s wealth of experience that he brought into the ministry since he joined in March 2017.

He said during his 15 months in office,Kenilorea was instrumental in progressing various Agreements, including:

*Assisted to manage RAMSI exit
*Security between Australia/Solomon Islands and regional the post RAMSI security agenda
* Trade Agreements – PACER Plus, iEPA
*Started work on LDC Graduation agenda
* Initiated work towards SI Policy on West Papua
*Managed other evolving Foreign Policy issues

“All the officers within the ministry will agree that Kenilorea Jnr is a good manager with excellent relations with staff,” Ma’ahanua said.

“He had introduced ethics of respect for one another and respect for others and service with credibility and integrity for the country to our staff at the ministry,” he added.

“Kenilorea Jnr was open to all staff and more importantly a source of motivation to younger staff members.

“We will miss his services.”

Kenilorea is a lawyer by training. He holds a law degree from Waikato University in New Zealand and a Masters in International Law from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining the UN, he worked with Jennifer Corrin Law firm and then the Attorney Generals Chambers in 1996.

He initially joined the UN as an intern and later as permanent staff since 2000 onwards with the UN Legal Department.

Maáhanua said the permanent secretary’s job has been advertised and hopefully a new PS will be appointed soon.

“Arrangements will be made for someone to supervise the ministry until a new appointment,” he added.

SOURCE: SOLOMON STAR