Yvonne Mpambara
Yvonne Mpambara | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1991 (age 34–35) |
| Alma mater | Makerere University University of East London |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Years active | 2016–present |
| Employer | Reach a Hand Uganda |
| Political party | Independent (until 2025) Women Freedom Fighters (2025–present) |
Yvonne Mpambara (born c. 1991) is a Ugandan lawyer and activist. In 2025, she announced her candidacy as an independent candidate in the 2026 presidential election, though she did not make the final ballot.
Early life and education
Mpambara was born in Kanungu, a town in the Western Region of Uganda; she was raised in Kabale. Mpambara's father died when she was a child.[1][2]
Mpambara attended Makerere University in Kampala, graduating with an LLB in law; she went on to obtain her postgraduate LLM from the University of East London in the United Kingdom.[2]
Career
Legal work
Upon returning to Uganda from her postgraduate studies, Mpambara worked with various human rights and civil society organisations, including SRHR Alliance Uganda, Reach a Hand Uganda, and the African Youth Caucus. In 2016, she was among a group of activists from the Forum for Women in Democracy arrested outside the National Theatre of Uganda; they had been planning to march to the Parliament of Uganda to protest plans to amend the Ugandan constitution to remove presidential age limits, which would have allowed for the long-term President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, to run for additional terms.[3] The Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 2 2017 was ultimately signed into law on 27 December 2017.[4]
Presidential campaign
On 26 August 2025, Mpambara announced her intention to run as an independent presidential candidate for the 2026 general election.[5][6] Only three women had previously successfully ran as candidates for president, with none of them being elected. Of 15 women who signed an official expression of interest in running, only three, including Mpambara, gained enough signatures from voters to be considered as potential candidates for the official ballot published by the Electoral Commission of Uganda.[6][7][8]
Mpambara's campaign advocated for inclusive governance, service delivery and legal reform, and stressed Uganda's status as a regional leader in East Africa.[7] She called for greater decentralisation from Kampala to ensure that the regions and districts were appropriately represented in decision-making.[9] Mpambara criticised the government's use of resources and its laws impacting disadvantaged communities, including boda boda riders, women, young people, the disabled, veterans, farmers, artists, sex workers, gig economy workers and frontline medics. She cited laws restricting access to sexual and reproductive health services as leading to an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies. Mpambara used the hashtag "#ShiftThePower" to promote her campaign.[6]
On 25 September 2025, the Electoral Commission confirmed eight presidential candidates for the 2026 election; no women were selected.[7][10] Mpambara subsequently filed a complaint with the commission, describing the criteria for receiving approval as a candidate as being "unclear" and accusing security forces of sabotaging her attempts to gain signatures from a majority of Ugandan districts, a prerequisite for confirmation as an official candidate, which she stated caused her to lose "thousands" of signatures. The Electoral Commission did not uphold Mpambara's complaint, nor the complaints of other female candidates.[11]
Following the end of her campaign, Mpambara wrote an article for the British newspaper The Guardian in which she reported that she had received harassment from men throughout her campaign, including being propositioned for sex, in addition to being smeared as a "Rwandan spy" and accused of having sex with the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.[7][12] She described the campaign as being "one of the most disrespectful periods of [her] life". Mpambara additionally criticised the Electoral Commission for only endorsing candidates from long-established political parties, stating that such parties did not give positions of power or authority to women, preventing them from running as official party candidates for the presidency.[7]
Subsequent activism
Following the culmination of her campaign, Mpambara created the Foundation for Female Presidential Aspirants, which aimed to support future female leaders in Uganda. She also expressed her intention to establish an all-female political party, the Women Freedom Fighters.[7][12]
See also
References
- ^ Vandyck, Charles (7 August 2025). "What Young Africans Can Learn from Yvonne Mpambara's Bold Bid for Uganda's Presidency". Development Report. Archived from the original on 10 September 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ a b Katungulu, Amon (11 August 2025). "Uganda: Yvonne Mpambara, 33, Enters 2026 Presidential Race". Nile Post. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kasadah, Badru (13 September 2016). "Lifting of age limit: Female activists arrested". Eagle Online. Archived from the original on 9 August 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ "The Constitution (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2017". Parliament of the Republic of Uganda. 2017. Archived from the original on 3 October 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ Kyatusiimire, Sharon (27 August 2025). "A Young Woman with a big Dream: Yvonne Mpambara Wants to be Uganda's First Female President". She Voice. Archived from the original on 3 January 2026. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ a b c Mawanda Naimanye, Andrew Victor (17 August 2025). "Manifestos Alone Aren't Enough, Says Presidential Hopeful Mpambara". Nile Post. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e f Mpambara, Yvonne (5 November 2025). "I was trying to run for the presidency in Uganda - yet men still found the audacity to call me 'baby, sweetheart, darling'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 November 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ Twongyeirwe, Hilda J.; Tusasirwe, Fortunate (18 March 2021). "Gender Politics in Uganda". Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ "Youngest Female Presidential Candidate Ever In Uganda's History Joins 2026 Presidential Race". Watchdog Uganda. 5 September 2025. Archived from the original on 10 August 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ "Uganda Clears Eight Candidates for 2026 Presidential Election". Ecofin Agency. 25 September 2025. Archived from the original on 5 November 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ "Why Uganda's young majority struggles for voice in President Yoweri Museveni's era". The Eastleigh Voice. 20 December 2025. Archived from the original on 3 January 2026. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ^ a b "We can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part 1". The Guardian. 25 December 2025. Archived from the original on 3 January 2026. Retrieved 3 January 2026.