Fathi Omar El-Kikhia

Fathi Bey Omar Pasha Mansour El-Kikhia (; 1901 – 7 August 1958) was a Libyan lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the first prime minister of Cyrenaica from July to September 1949 and the first deputy prime minister of Libya from December 1951 to February 1954. He served as the acting prime minister of Libya on several occasions between 1951 and 1954.

Early life and career Fathi Omar Mansour El-Kikhia was born in Benghazi, Cyrenaica, Ottoman Tripolitania, in 1901. A member of the Karaghla tribe, he is the eldest son of the head of the tribe Omar Pasha El-Kikhia, an influential Cyrenaican nobleman. From 1912, he was educated at the Collège des Frères in Alexandria, Egypt, completing his secondary education there in 1919. He then studied at Sorbonne University in Paris, France, where he obtained a law degree in 1925. El-Kikhia then studied in the United States, France and Italy, which is where he received a doctorate of law.

Following his studies, El-Kikhia returned to Benghazi in what had by then become Italian Libya. A leading campaigner of Libyan independence alongside his father Omar Pasha, he was detained by the colonial authorities on his return, being imprisoned as a political prisoner for thirty months at Burj Shuwailik, a detention centre in the Benina area of the city, with other important individuals from the city, including Ali Pasha Al-Obaidi, Al-Senussi Jabr, Saleh Jaouda and Muhammad Mansour El-Kikhia. He then fled to Egypt, which is where he settled. In Egypt, El-Kikhia founded a law firm in Alexandria and practiced as a lawyer for the Mixed Courts. In addition to his native Arabic, El-Kikhia would become a fluent speaker of English, French and Italian during this period.

El-Kikhia's cabinet was formed in September 1949. In addition to El-Kikhia, its other members included Sayed Ali Assad al-Jerbi, who was appointed as minister of public works and communications, Sayed Saadallah ibn Saud, who was appointed as minister of interior, Sayed Mohamed Bu Dajaja, who was appointed as minister of finance, Sayed Hussein Maziq, who was appointed as minister of agriculture and forests, and Sayid Khalil el Qallal, who was appointed minister of public health. In al-Muntasir's first cabinet reshuffle on 14 May 1952, El-Kikhia remained deputy prime minister and minister of justice, with his education portfolio granted to Muhammad Sakizli. On several occasions, El-Kikhia served as acting prime minister while al-Muntasir recovered from ill health. In government, he used his experience as a lawyer to draw up and enact new laws for the newly independent country, many of which remained in force following the rule of Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan civil war in 2011.

Ambassador to Italy and America Following al-Muntasir's resignation on 15 February 1954, Idris considered appointing El-Kikhia as the new prime minister. However, El-Kikhia had fallen out of favour by this time, and Idris ultimately appointed Sakizli as the new prime minister on 18 February 1954.

El-Kikhia was appointed as the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States of America on 21 March 1954, making him Libya's first ambassador to the country.

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