[3][4] Joshua Wanume Kibedi was born in Busesa, Iganga District, Uganda Protectorate, on 3 August 1941.
[3] He moved to the United Kingdom circa 1960 to train at a law firm and work under an Inn of Court, which qualified him to become a Barrister-at-Law.
[5] He returned to Uganda around 1960 and became the first Ugandan solicitor to qualify to bring cases before the East African Court of Appeals.
[5] Kibedi was appointed Foreign Minister of Uganda in January 1971 soon after Idi Amin had seized power in 1971 Ugandan coup d'état.
Issa Habib Galungbe, kidnapped Kibedi's uncle, Shaban Nkutu, the former Minister of Health from 1966 to 1967, from Scindia Road in Jinja, Uganda.
[1][5][2] Rather than returning to Uganda, Kibedi immediately announced his resignation from the Foreign Ministry and the president's cabinet, denounced Amin, and went into exile in the United Kingdom.
[2] He worked with his second cousin, Kirunda Kivejinja, who was active with the National Resistance Movement's (NRM) external division, to oppose the Idi Amin dictatorship.
[2] During the 1980s, Kibedi supported the National Resistance Movement, led by Yoweri Museveni, during the Ugandan Bush War against President Milton Obote.