Lombe Chibesakunda

Lombe Phyllis Chibesakunda (born 5 May 1944) is a Zambian lawyer and diplomat. She has been the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Zambia, Solicitor General, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, acting Chief Justice of Zambia, and has served as an Ambassador to Japan, the United Kingdom, the Vatican, and the Netherlands. Chibesakunda is the first woman president of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Court of Justice in Khartoum, Sudan.

Quotes

• “I can safely say I have served my country and the world community diligently,”
• “I was not welcomed by those officers who had directly come from Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lusaka. There was a lot of back-stabbing and applying of the cockroach sort of syndrome of pulling each other down. I was recalled to Zambia in 1981 when unknown person had reported that I had sold a number of vehicles, which I had never done and was proven innocent..”
• “It was bad for me. This is where I saw immaturity as a nation; Zambians stabbing each other in the back just to grab a post. I came back to Zambia with a sore heart,".
• “When he passed (President Michael Sata), there was sadly no hope for me from there, and no support from comrades he left behind. I shared a few words with President Lungu, and I was the first person to be removed under his administration, causing me to withdraw from public life entirely. The Patriotic Front, as it stands in this current moment, remains far from the mark of the original strong ideologies and passion for revolution on behalf of societies most vulnerable.”
• “The pain of feeling alone at this time made it more of a strong challenge, as the Patriotic Front, the party which had nominated my position, refused to defend or speak on my behalf in Parliament or outside. They were mute by the visitation of God or whatever reason.”
  • Book Review: My Trodden Path – An Autobiography by Justice Chibesakunda, Zambia’s First Female Lawyer,November 6, 2022, By Chief Editor.