Kiri Banda Ratnayake

Kiri Banda Ratnayake (23 February 1924 - 30 April 2004) was a Sri Lankan politician, the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament and later was the Governor of the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Born in a small hamlet in Rajarata, his father Mudalihamy Ratnayake was a Village Headman. He lost his mother when he was ten years old and was raised by his elder sister. He was educated at Hartley College in Point Pedro.

In 1943, he gained appointment as a village cultivation Officer and served in Medawachchiya and Kahatagasdigiliya. Although he was not successful in his application for the post Sub-Inspector in the Ceylon Police Force, he was promoted to cultivation officer city tanks (COCT) in 1945. He thereafter joined the Survey Department as a kachcheri surveyor, serving in the districts of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.

With the formation of the Anuradhapura Preservation Board, Ratnayake applied and was selected for the post of Land Officer. He was a close friend of Maithripala Senanayake, who was a fellow village cultivation Officer. With Senanayake appointed Minister of Transport in 1956, Ratnayake was appointed his private secretary in 1958. Following the death of Sirimevan Godage in 1962, Senanayake proposed Ratnayake for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party nomination for the by-election that followed in Anuradhapura.

Having been elected to parliament in the by-election, he was re-elected in the 1965 parliamentary election and the 1970 general election. He was appointed Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Sports in 1970.