Joshua Wanume Kibedi was an Ugandan lawyer, politician and diplomat, who served as the Foreign Minister between January 1971 and January 1973 during the early years of the regime of Idi Amin. However, Kibedi resigned as Foreign Minister in 1973 after the murder of his uncle, Shaban Nkutu, by Amin. Kibedi went into exile and became a leading critic of Idi Amin's dictatorship.
Background
Joshua Wanume Kibedi was born in Busesa, Iganga District, Uganda Protectorate, on August 3, 1941. His father, Elkanah Kibedi, the former headmaster of Busoga College Mwiri, was one of the first members of the Busoga people to attend school. Kibedi was descended from the Baisemenhya, one of the eleven royal clans of the Busoga people. The Baisemenhya royal clan traces their ancestry to the Bunyoro royal family.
Education
He was educated locally and in 1955 went to Busoga College, Mweri, passing school certificate comfortably in 1960.
Arriving in Britain in September 1961, he was articled immediately and took a five-year course as a solicitor with Waterhouse and Company. In 1966 he completed his articles and took two more years to get his LLB in London, in June 1968.
Career
During his seven-year stay in London, he played a major part in the Uganda and Radical Students’ Unions and won himself an acknowledged position as a students’ leader. On his return home in August, he worked in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, but wanting more freedom of expression, went into private practice early in 1969, with Godfrey Binaisa, who had resigned earlier from the Obote government.
He ran the Jinja branch of the new firm and joined in the long campaign run up to the UPC elections that were finally held in September 1970. His opponent was Sam Odaka, Obote’s Foreign Minister, who defeated him by a handful of votes. Kibedi then continued his campaign for the general elections that were promised for the following year, when the coup came on January 25, 1971.
Foreign policy was often handed down to him by Amin, who expelled the Israelis from Uganda, and took a new pro-Arab stance. Under him there was a significant toughening of attitudes on South Africa and the first full Chinese Ambassador was established in Kampala.
He died at St Thomas' Hospital in London on June 13, 2016, at the age of 74, after a coma which lasted several days. He had suffered from gout, arthritis and lung fibrosis. Kibedi was survived by his wife, Betty Wanume Kibedi, and their six children. His death was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Kirunda Kivejinja, who is also Kibedi's second cousin. Kibedi's remains were flown back to Entebbe International Airport on June 29, 2016. A memorial service for Kibedi was held at All Saints Cathedral in Kampala followed by a burial in Busesa on July 2, 2016.
Politics
During the 1980s, Kibedi supported the National Resistance Movement, led by Yoweri Museveni, during the Ugandan Bush War against President Milton Obote. Museveni's NRM won the war and ousted Obote from power.
Personality
Handsome, behind heavy rimmed glasses, impeccably dressed, with a polished, urbane manner, at 29 he became the youngest member of the post-coup cabinet of President Amin, his brother-in-law. Earlier, he had established his popularity and prominence as a student leader in Britain and as a brilliant, up and coming lawyer in Uganda, opposed to the Obote government.
His logical mind and articulate self-expression gave him a flying start in his first ministerial post, where his chief task was to get his country recognised immediately after the coup and in making fundamental foreign policy changes. But the strains of working for the Amin government finally led to his resignation for reasons of health.