In May and June 2005, a number of prominent Fiji Islanders called for the status of Fijian to be upgraded; the present Education Minister, Ro Teimumu Kepa endorsed calls for it to be made compulsory, as did Great Council of Chiefs Chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini.
Kepa was married for many years to Ro Teimumu Kepa, an Adi (Fijian chief) and politician in her own right, who is currently (June 2005) the Roko Tui Dreketi (Paramount Chief) of the Burebasaga Confederacy and Minister for Education in the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.
Ro Teimumu Kepa is the widow of Sailosi Kepa, a former high commissioner to London, minister of justice and attorney general (1988–1992) who went on to become a High Court judge, Ombudsman, and first chairman of Fiji's Human Rights Commission.
Teimumu Kepa | Kepa Junkera | KEPA | Sailosi Kepa |
The Congress is administered by a Trust Board comprising: the Paramount Chiefs of two of Fiji’s three tribal confederacies – namely, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, Paramount Chief of the Tovata Tribal Confederacy and Ro Teimumu Kepa, Paramount Chief of the Burebasaga Tribal Confederacy.