Jean-Baptiste Kibwe

Jean-Baptiste Kibwe Pampala Uwitwa (Kilwa, 3 March 1924 — Brussels, 21 November 2008) was a Congolese-Katangese politician who was the Minister of Justice and Vice-President of the State of Katanga.

On the day when Lumumba, Joseph Okito, and Maurice Mpolo were transferred from Léopoldville to Élisabethville, Kibwe was doing a few test rounds of Austrian jeeps, together with Secretary of State of Public Works Gabriel Kitenge.

[6] After the secession ended in 1963, Kibwe was a candidate in the election to become provincial President of the newly created Katanga Oriental province.

[7] In 1965, the year of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's second coup d'État, the new president appointed Kibwe as administrator for Union Minière du Haut-Katanga for a brief period.

In this context, he dismissed Jean Nguza Karl-i-Bond, Tshombe's nephew, from his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, citing an alleged collusion with Kibwe a few months before Shaba I in which he allegdly was informed of an imminent attack.