Prime Minister Mia Mottley has announced she will appoint Khaleel Kothdiwala to the Senate, replacing Senator Roshanna Trim, who is taking a diplomatic posting in the United Kingdom to oversee diasporic affairs.
The appointment will make Kothdiwala the youngest senator in the country’s history.
Announcing the change at the Barbados Labour Party’s 87th Annual Conference on Saturday evening, Mottley said: “I will be advising His Excellency the President of this … and then I will be asking him to appoint young Khaleel Kothdiwala to the Senate.”
Speaking to Barbados TODAY after the announcement, Kothdiwala said he was honoured to have been chosen.
“I am very, very humbled to have been called to serve by the Prime Minister, and I thank the Prime Minister for reposing her confidence in me,” he said.
Attorney-at-Law Khaleel Kothdiwala to be appointed a Senator replacing Roshanna Trim who will take up a diplomatic post in the United Kingdom
“Indeed, for a second time, the public will recall the circumstances of this particular appointment some years ago, and so I am very, very humbled to be able to serve. I look forward to being able to make what I hope would be a meaningful contribution to national development.”
The newly qualified attorney said his experiences would inform his contributions in the Senate.
“I hope to bring that to bear, my own life experiences, young though I may be, in my contributions in the Senate,” he said.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley greets Attorney-at-Law Khaleel Kothdiwala after she announced his appointment as a Senator
“I hope really just to be able to do my best, and as a public servant in the service of making law, the public is your judge, and I would hope that they can pass favourable judgment, having observed my contributions, which I undertake always to be of my best [ability].”
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister thanked Senator Trim for what she described as “her extraordinary contribution”.
She said she understood that young people should be allowed to pursue new opportunities and expressed confidence in Trim’s future success.
(RR)
