Word: kimba
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Dawn Riser. With army backing, Mobutu has put a violent end to the political intrigues that confounded every Premier from Leftist Patrice Lumumba to Rightist Moise Tshombe. He organized a youth corps to report any political activity, and he hanged four politicians, including ex-Premier Evariste Kimba, whom he caught plotting against...
...government told it, the principal plotters were Evariste Kimba, who had been the Congo's last civilian Premier, and onetime (until 1964) Finance Minister Emmanuel Bamba. Together with two other ex-Ministers they were accused of trying to get the Leopoldville army garrisons to rise against Mobutu. The attempt failed, charged the regime, only because the officers with whom they were plotting remained secretly loyal to Mobutu-and the authorities arrested them hours before the uprising was supposed to have started...
...days after their arrest, Kimba and the other three, their bodies badly bruised and their wrists painfully bound, were hauled before a military tribunal. As a noisy throng looked on, the tribunal gave each a brief hearing; each denied any intention of killing Mobutu and his colleagues. The court deliberated six minutes before finding them guilty and sentencing them to be hanged -36 hours later-in the public square. Appeals for clemency from the diplomatic corps were turned down...
Ostensible purpose of the session was a confidence vote on Kimba and his Cabinet, which had been installed last month after Kasavubu fired Tshombe. But even more was at stake. With Parliament and the 21 provincial legislatures due to elect a new President this winter, the vote was the first test of strength between Kasavubu, who wanted badly to be reelected, and Tshombe, his only serious rival for the job. Honoring Congolese political tradition, both sides had spent huge sums to win votes and influence legislators-some of whom reportedly were offered more than $15,000 for their allegiance...
...just as well for Kasavubu that he was not on hand. By the time the final name on the roll (Senator Emile Zola from Kongo Central) was called, Parliament had thrown out his handpicked Kimba regime by a vote of 134 to 121 and handed Tshombe a narrow but satisfying victory. It was, however, only the first round. Kasavubu immediately asked Kimba to form another Cabinet, which under the constitution gave the defeated Premier another 30 days of grace before Tshombe could mount a new challenge in Parliament...