Kieren Keke - Background

Background

He is currently a leading figure of the Naoero Amo party and is one of the few medical professionals on the island. (Others are Dr. Mark Kun, Dr. Ludwig Keke—Kieren's father, a dentist, Dr. Godfrey Waidabu (now living in the Marshall Islands), and Dr. Kiki Thoma.)

In 2004 he was not allowed to take his parliamentary seat. The speaker of Parliament, Russell Kun claimed that Keke, having Australian nationality as well as Nauruan, could not sit in Parliament. Keke was also arrested along with Baron Waqa, David Adeang and Fabian Ribauw in April 2004 and charged with sedition after a protest at Nauru's airport, but the charges were soon dropped. The charges were dropped following a resolution of Parliament moved by Keke and others charged that the charges be dropped. The DPP was not consulted by the Parliament and the motion was in contravention of the Constitution and the Rule of Law. Keke was reelected to Parliament in October 2004, and retained his post as health minister.

Keke resigned from the government, along with Frederick Pitcher and Roland Kun, in late 2007 over allegations of misconduct on the part of Adeang and Scotty's unwillingness to act against Adeang. He led the opposition to Scotty in a no-confidence motion on 13 November 2007; although a majority of those voting supported the motion (eight in favor, seven opposed), it fell short of the necessary nine votes.

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