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Sunday, July 13, 2025

President Christine Kangaloo: I will fight to the end to make the office better for all of us

by

Chester Sambrano
846 days ago
20230320
President Christine Kangaloo. Image by Nicole Drayton

President Christine Kangaloo. Image by Nicole Drayton

A Guard of Ho­n­our com­pris­ing sharply dressed mem­bers of the De­fence Force sig­nalled the start of the process to in­stall a new Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Scores of on­look­ers, in­clud­ing school chil­dren in uni­form, looked on from the Grand­Stand at the Queens Park Sa­van­nah as Pres­i­dent-Elect Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo and her hus­band Ker­wyn Gar­cia ar­rived at the venue.

Their ar­rival was fol­lowed by Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and Mrs Archie, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his wife Mrs Sharon Row­ley.

The fi­nal ma­jor dig­ni­tary to ar­rive was Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes to par­tic­i­pate in the cer­e­mo­ni­al hand­ing over of the reigns of Com­man­der in Chief of the Armed Forces.

The break­ing of the Pres­i­den­tial Stan­dard was next, fol­lowed by the Pres­i­den­tial Salute, while the Na­tion­al An­them was played si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

Chief Ri­car­do Bharath Her­nan­dez of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ple and pres­i­dent of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion Pun­dit Mookram Sir­joo did the in­vo­ca­tion.

A mu­si­cal in­ter­lude by the South­er­naires Choir per­form­ing Melanie Hud­son's 'I will al­ways be there for you' en­ter­tained the at­ten­dees be­fore the Swear­ing-In Cer­e­mo­ny took place, ad­min­is­tered by the Chief Jus­tice.

In her first act as the 7th Pres­i­dent of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Mrs Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo re­ceived a Pres­i­den­tial Salute ac­com­pa­nied by the Na­tion­al An­them and a Twen­ty-One Gun Salute.

She then pro­ceed­ed to in­spect the Guard of Ho­n­our.

An­oth­er per­for­mance from the South­er­naires Choir fol­lowed, with a ren­di­tion of Mer­chant's 'Let us build a na­tion to­geth­er'.

In her In­au­gur­al Ad­dress, Her Ex­cel­len­cy Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo thanked for­mer Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes and paid trib­ute to this coun­try's past pres­i­dents.

She then as­sured that" As your Pres­i­dent, I will fight to the end to make the Of­fice work bet­ter for all of us."

Her Ex­cel­len­cy out­lined plans to de­mys­ti­fy the role of the Pres­i­dent, year-round youth delin­quen­cy pro­grammes, and the mod­ernising of pro­to­cols of the Of­fice of Pres­i­dent, to be­come more ac­ces­si­ble to the and "less iso­lat­ed from the pub­lic."

She al­so ac­knowl­edged that there are some who were and still are against her ap­point­ment.

How­ev­er, she said, "we are still this coun­try's daugh­ters and sons. And so I pledge to work with and to re­spect all cit­i­zens even and es­pe­cial­ly those who might not yet wish to work with me."

Mrs Kan­ga­loo end­ed by thank­ing her hus­band of 24 years and her oth­er fam­i­ly and friends who have sup­port­ed her through­out her life and ca­reer.

InstagramChristine Kangaloo


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