Youth & Women Empowerment – The Zambian Economist | Your Brand. Our Platform. Maximum Impact.

EAZ Student Spotlight invites Zambia’s campus talent to step forward

The Zambian Economist — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:02:27 +0000

EAZ’s new Student Spotlight will feature the achievements and ideas of student members across Zambia’s universities and colleges. Here is who qualifies, what to submit and why a well-told campus story can matter beyond the lecture room.

By The Zambian Economist Analyst

Key takeaways

The Economics Association of Zambia has announced Student Spotlight, a segment approved by its Executive Committee for its website and social media platforms.
Participants must be EAZ student members and members of their university club.
Submissions need a story, the institution’s name, a clear photograph and social media handles.
Send submissions to the EAZ Secretariat. The announcement gives no submission deadline or date for the first student feature.

The Economics Association of Zambia is inviting eligible students to submit their achievements, success stories and ideas for its new EAZ Student Spotlight. The segment will put individual students and their work before the association’s website and social media audiences, with featured students tagged on its pages.

For a student who has done something worth sharing, the first task is straightforward: explain what you did and why it matters.

In its official notice published on 21 October 2026, EAZ says the Executive Committee approved the segment to celebrate talent across universities and colleges and inspire fellow students. It gives club leaders a practical role: circulate the invitation and help members send in their stories.

Who can take part in EAZ Student Spotlight?

Applicants must meet both conditions: be a student member of EAZ and belong to their university club. Being enrolled at a university or college alone does not satisfy the stated requirements.

Students unsure about their membership status or their institution’s club should check with their club leadership or the EAZ Secretariat before submitting. Those who have yet to join can consult EAZ’s official membership information.

What makes a student story worth reading?

An achievement becomes more useful to other students when the person behind it explains the work involved. What problem were you trying to solve? What did you actually do? What changed, and what would you approach differently next time?

A research project, a student enterprise or a club initiative could provide a starting point. These are suggestions for presenting a story, not additional categories or selection rules announced by EAZ. A promising idea should also be described honestly as an idea, rather than as a result already achieved.

Where there is a measurable outcome, give its period and explain how it was established. Where the achievement was a team effort, acknowledge the people involved. Specific details give readers something to learn from; broad claims about passion rarely do.

What should students submit?

EAZ asks for four items:

Your story: details of what you have achieved or the idea you want to share.
Your institution: the name of your university or college.
Your photograph: a clear picture of yourself.
Your social media handles: the accounts EAZ can tag when featuring you.

A useful submission would put the student’s name and institution near the top, followed by a concise account of the work. Any supporting evidence should explain the achievement without disclosing someone else’s private information.

Where do I send my submission?

EAZ Secretariat
Email: secretariat@eaz.org.zm
Phone/WhatsApp: 0979 697 853 / 0978 631 868

Suggested email subject: EAZ Student Spotlight | Your name | Your institution

The suggested subject line is an organisational aid from The Zambian Economist, not an EAZ requirement. Submissions go directly to the association’s Secretariat.

Why visibility matters, and what it cannot promise

For a student, explaining a piece of work to readers outside a classroom is a useful exercise in professional communication. It requires an argument that someone unfamiliar with the assignment can follow, and evidence that can withstand questions.

For employers and established economists, student features could offer a way to discover emerging interests and work being done on campus. Whether that leads to mentoring or professional contact will depend on what participants and readers do afterwards.

The announcement promises a public feature and tagging. It does not announce a scholarship, cash award, internship or job placement. Nor does it set out a judging system, a publication schedule or a deadline. Students should direct questions about selection and timing to EAZ.

A practical task for campus clubs

Club leaders can help by checking that members understand the eligibility rules and by encouraging submissions that are clear and accurate. Students with useful work to share may need help explaining it, especially when their audience extends beyond their course.

The invitation is an opportunity to make that work visible. A strong submission starts with a concrete contribution and gives another student a reason to think: I could try that too.

Explore our Youth & Women Empowerment coverage and Business & Economy hub. Related coverage: EAZ’s talks with Ugandan economists on research cooperation. Find opportunities in our events listings and business directory.

Source: EAZ Secretariat announcement and official EAZ notice, 21 October 2026. Submission guidance and commentary are The Zambian Economist’s. Featured photograph: students at KNEBA’s research fellowship. Source: Kwame Nkrumah Economics and Business Association (KNEBA).

WARNING! All rights reserved. This material and all other digital content on this website may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior express permission of The Zambian Economist. Where permission is granted, the content must be clearly credited to “The Zambian Economist,” with “www.zambianeconomist.com” prominently displayed.

Work With The Zambian Economist

Advertise With Us | List With Us | Submit an Article

Subscribe to our weekly briefing | About Us | Contact Us

Government, Airtel back e-waste skills drive for young Zambians

The Zambian Economist — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:56:10 +0000

Airtel’s donation of discarded electronics will support practical training, while Government says finance, equipment and access to markets must follow.

By The Zambian Economist Analyst

Key takeaways

Government is calling for stronger e-waste collection, recycling and safe disposal systems as Zambia’s use of electronic devices grows.
Airtel Zambia has donated electronic waste for practical youth training, according to the supplied event briefing.
The ILO says the Japan-funded programme targets 100 young women and men in Central Province; that is a target, not a count of jobs already created.
Training must be backed by equipment, financing and customers if participants are to build lasting livelihoods.

Government has called for coordinated action on electronic waste management, linking the safe handling of discarded devices to employment and business opportunities for young Zambians.

At the World E-Waste Day commemoration in Lusaka on 14 October, Green Economy and Environment Minister Gilbert Siame said the growing use of phones, computers, routers and other devices required effective collection, recycling and safe disposal systems. His speech was read by Forestry Director Freddie Siangulube, according to the event briefing supplied to The Zambian Economist.

The briefing identifies Airtel Zambia’s contribution as a donation of electronic waste to support practical skills development. It does not state the quantity or value of the donation.

What is Zambia’s e-waste youth employment project?

The Government is working with the International Labour Organisation under the Sustainable E-Waste Management for Youth Employment Project. The ILO’s project page confirms that the initiative operates in Central Province with funding from Japan.

In a July progress update, the ILO said it aimed to support 100 young women and men, including persons with disabilities, across Chibombo, Chisamba, Kabwe, Kapiri Mposhi and Mumbwa.

That figure describes the intended reach of the programme. It does not establish that 100 participants have secured jobs or started profitable businesses.

How can discarded electronics support livelihoods?

The opportunity extends from collecting old equipment to repairing devices, preparing them for reuse and recovering materials through recycling. The programme combines technical training with business management and financial literacy, according to the event briefing.

Siame said training needed to be complemented by access to employers, work-based learning, equipment, financing and markets. For participants hoping to establish enterprises, those conditions determine whether a skill becomes a source of income.

A donation can provide equipment for practical learning. An ongoing business also needs a dependable supply of discarded devices, the tools to handle them safely and customers willing to pay for repaired products or recovered materials.

The business test comes after training

For Zambia’s repair shops and prospective recycling businesses, the commercial question is whether revenue can cover collection, transport and safe processing costs. Access to finance matters, but so does a market for what an enterprise produces.

The programme’s results should therefore be assessed through paid placements, enterprises still trading after training and participants’ earnings. The quantity of e-waste safely collected and processed would provide a separate environmental measure.

No figures for jobs already created, participant earnings or business survival were provided in the commemoration briefing. These remain measures to track as implementation proceeds.

Why safe handling matters

The minister linked the initiative to protecting public health and the environment. The ILO also includes occupational safety in its programme approach. Expanding collection without safe handling and disposal would leave part of the problem unresolved.

The next test is whether Government, employers and cooperating partners can connect the training to sustained work and viable enterprises. Airtel’s reported contribution provides material for skills development; its employment effect will depend on what follows.

Source note: Ministerial remarks and Airtel donation details are drawn from the event briefing supplied to The Zambian Economist. Programme funding, target and geographical coverage are corroborated by the ILO. The briefing does not provide a verified employment outcome count.

More coverage

Explore our Technology & Innovation coverage and Entrepreneurship & Startups reporting for more on digital businesses and enterprise development in Zambia.

Work With The Zambian Economist

Advertise With Us | List With Us | Submit an Article

Zambia’s Most Representative Parliament Now Has to Earn It

The Zambian Economist — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 05:46:12 +0000

Forty proportional representation seats will seat record numbers of women, young people and Zambians with disabilities when the National Assembly opens on 9 October. Who sits in the chamber has changed. What citizens get out of it is the test that follows.

By The Zambian Economist Analyst | Lusaka | 24 September 2026

Key Takeaways

Zambia’s 13 August election filled the first 40 proportional representation seats in the National Assembly’s history: 20 reserved for women, 15 for youth and 5 for persons with disabilities, shared between parties according to their presidential vote.
Women won only 32 of the 226 constituency seats, about 14 percent, close to the share they held in the last Assembly. The reserved seats lift the number of women in the new House to at least 52, the highest on record.
President Hakainde Hichilema has framed the change as a responsibility for all citizens to “GROW ZAMBIA TOGETHER”; the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities has welcomed the five disability seats.
The First Session of the 14th National Assembly opens on 9 October, when members elect a Speaker and take up committee assignments.
The seats will count only if they change output: laws, budgets and scrutiny that improve access to services, credit and markets for groups the chamber has long missed.

Zambia’s next Parliament will seat more women, more young people and more Zambians with disabilities than any House before it. The Electoral Commission of Zambia completed the allocation of 40 new proportional representation seats in September, and President Hakainde Hichilema has cast the moment as a call for every citizen to help GROW ZAMBIA. The harder question begins after the swearing in: what will the new members actually pass, scrutinise and change?

The seats exist because of Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 7 of 2025, which Parliament passed in December 2025. The law expanded the Assembly to 226 constituency seats and added 40 list seats reserved for three groups: 20 for women, 15 for youth and 5 for persons with disabilities. Parties receive the seats based on the national vote their presidential candidates won, then fill them from candidate lists lodged before polling day.

The reform responded to a stubborn pattern. In the constituencies, almost nothing moved. Women won 32 of the 226 directly elected seats declared after the 13 August poll, about 14 percent, close to the 15 percent share they held across the last Assembly, where 25 women sat in a House of 167. With the reserved seats added, the new Assembly opens with at least 52 women among its 266 constituency and list members, just under one in five, before the President’s nominations are announced.

How the 40 seats were shared

The UPND, which won the presidential election with 61.3 percent of the vote and 137 constituency seats, took 32 of the 40 list places. The NRPUP of runner-up Brian Mundubile took the remaining 8. Smaller parties and independents, which won 28 constituency seats between them, did not qualify for list seats.

Reserved category	UPND	NRPUP	Total
Women	17	3	20
Youth	12	3	15
Persons with disabilities	3	2	5
Total	32	8	40

The presidential result itself remains disputed. Mr Mundubile rejected it, and European Union observers described a competitive race on an uneven playing field. The seat allocations, however, rest on the certified returns and on the December 2025 amendment, and the parties have seated their list members.

Why the numbers only moved by statute

Zambian women have contested seats at a similar rate for two decades, and the ballot box never fixed the imbalance. The Inter-Parliamentary Union put the world average for women in national parliaments at 27.5 percent in January 2026. Zambia’s new Assembly, at just under 20 percent even with the reserved seats, remains below that mark.

The gap is wider for age. United Nations estimates put Zambia’s median age at about 17, one of the youngest national populations in the world, yet the chamber that writes the rules on education financing, apprenticeships and first jobs has rarely reflected it. The 15 youth seats give that cohort a voting presence for the first time.

For Zambians with disabilities, the change is more basic. Until this year, a disabled Zambian typically reached the National Assembly only through presidential nomination. Five reserved seats now guarantee the group a place regardless of who occupies State House.

What the President said

Mr Hichilema set out the stakes in a message posted after the list was confirmed, and the Ministry of Finance circulated it with a challenge of its own: representation must mean opportunity for ordinary citizens, measured in better laws, stronger accountability and improvements people can feel.

“We ALL have a responsibility to help GROW ZAMBIA. Working late this evening, thinking about every person living with a disability in Zambia, every young person with leadership ambition, every woman working to improve the lives of others; They are now represented in Parliament more than ever before so let’s all work hard and smart to GROW ZAMBIA TOGETHER!”
President Hakainde Hichilema

The Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities welcomed the disability seats. Student unions and civic groups that received the new members in September urged them to champion the Grow Zambia agenda rather than settle quietly into the chamber.

The citizen test: laws, budgets and follow through

A seat changes little on its own. Three tests will show whether representation is working.

Can the five disability members move money? The Persons with Disabilities Act of 2022 promises accessible public services on paper. Ministry budget lines, not statements, decide whether a rural clinic gets a ramp or a sign language interpreter. If the disability bloc cannot defend those allocations through the budget cycle, the seats will have been ceremonial.

Can the youth members touch the credit system? The test is whether they shift practical levers: apprenticeship funding, procurement set-asides for small firms, and the terms on which young Zambians can borrow to start a business.

Can the women members get committee power? Legislation lives in committees. The Public Accounts Committee, whose interrogation of Auditor General findings we track in our AG Reports hub, is where ministry spending is questioned line by line. Chairmanships and membership matter as much as headcounts.

The business and investor read

For employers and investors, a broader chamber should produce workable rules. Members who have run market stalls, managed disability services or searched for their first job tend to write procurement, licensing and credit rules that smaller firms can actually follow.

The cost is real too. The House has grown from 164 members in the last term to 266 constituency and list members before nominations, with salaries, gratuities and constituency offices to match. As our analysis of the Emoluments Commission set out, the bill for public office should be judged against the output it buys. Citizens will be entitled to ask what the larger Parliament delivered by 2028.

Legislative stability is the other variable investors price. The Speaker election on 9 October and the handling of the first legislative programme will signal whether the expanded House can process business, or whether it adds friction.

What to watch from 9 October

The First Session of the 14th National Assembly opens on Friday 9 October. Watch four things: who is elected Speaker, an office Nelly Mutti held as its first woman in the last Assembly; which committees the new members chair; how the youth, women and disability blocs vote when their interests diverge from party lines; and whether their fingerprints appear in the 2027 Budget, the first spending plan of the new term, which we have argued should put jobs and productive investment first.

The seats are won. Zambia will judge its most representative Parliament by what leaves the chamber: laws, budgets and oversight that citizens can feel.

Sources and related reading

Work With The Zambian Economist

DEC takes drug and mental health education to church camp meetings

The Zambian Economist — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:53:29 +0000

The Drug Enforcement Commission took its prevention message to two of the country’s biggest church gatherings in August, teaching young people in Western Province how alcohol, tobacco and cannabis feed into depression, anxiety and self-harm. It is the Commission’s most direct acknowledgment yet that drug prevention in Zambia is as much a mental health conversation as a law enforcement one.

Key takeaways

The DEC’s Education and Counselling Department sensitised youths at Seventh-day Adventist and Catholic camp meetings in Western Province from 23rd to 29th August 2026.
Sessions drew a direct line between substance use and mental health challenges including depression, anxiety, suicide and self-harm.
The Commission named alcohol, tobacco and cannabis as the substances most commonly abused by young Zambians.
The approach marks a shift from arrests to prevention, working through institutions that already hold young people’s trust.

When the Drug Enforcement Commission wanted to reach young people in Western Province last month, it did not set up a roadblock or a courtroom. It went to church. Through its Education and Counselling Department, the Commission joined the Seventh-day Adventist and Catholic camp meetings held from 23rd to 29th August 2026, slotting drug prevention sessions between the prayers and reflections that anchor the annual gatherings.

What happened at the camp meetings

Camp meetings bring church members together for days of worship, teaching and fellowship, and they draw some of the largest youth audiences any institution in rural Zambia can assemble. The ECD team used that platform for structured sessions on drug and substance use, run alongside the normal programme rather than apart from it.

The subject matter went beyond the usual warnings. Officers walked the youths through the connection between substance use and mental health, naming depression, anxiety, suicide and self-harm as conditions that travel with prolonged alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use. Those three, the Commission says, remain the substances most commonly abused by young Zambians.

Why the mental health link matters

For years, Zambia’s drug conversation has run on two separate tracks: the police track, measured in arrests and seizures, and the health track, measured in admissions to Chainama and other psychiatric services. The DEC’s camp meeting sessions join the two. A young person who hears that cannabis can worsen anxiety, or that drinking deepens depression, is being given a reason to stay clear that has nothing to do with the fear of a cell.

The format mattered as much as the content. The Commission describes the sessions as highly interactive, with youths asking questions and sharing their own experiences. Prevention messaging that survives contact with an audience’s real life, rather than being recited at it, is the only kind that tends to change behaviour.

The church as a delivery channel

The choice of venue is the quieter story here. In much of rural Zambia the state’s footprint is thin, but churches run schools, clinics, youth clubs and camps with volunteer armies and weekly attendance figures most ministries would envy. A commission that pairs its enforcement mandate with an education arm that can walk into those networks buys reach it could not otherwise afford.

It also buys trust. Youths who would never attend a police-organised lecture will sit through a session their congregation has endorsed, sandwiched into a week they already chose to attend. The Commission says it remains committed to educating, empowering and engaging communities, particularly young people, and the camp meetings show what that looks like in practice.

What to watch

The test of sensitisation programmes is never the workshop itself; it is what happens months later, in the choices of the people who sat through it. Watch for two things: whether the DEC extends the church partnership to other provinces and denominations, and whether its counselling lines begin reporting more young people seeking help voluntarily, which is the outcome this kind of outreach is designed to produce.

More reporting on Zambia’s institutions and public policy is collected in our Leadership and Governance hub.

Work With The Zambian Economist: Advertise With Us · List With Us · Submit an Article

Imanga Wamunyima Jr Wins Nalolo Parliamentary Seat by Narrow Margin

The Zambian Economist — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:54:24 +0000

By The Zambian Economist Analyst

Key takeaways

UPND’s Imanga Wamunyima Jr has won the Nalolo parliamentary seat with 10,420 votes.
Independent candidate Mashekwa Namakando finished second with 10,067 votes, a margin of 353 votes.
The narrow result reflects Nalolo’s status as one of the election’s closely watched contests.
Wamunyima had campaigned in Nalolo alongside President Hakainde Hichilema in the final stretch of the race.

UPND candidate Imanga Wamunyima Jr has won the Nalolo parliamentary seat, defeating Independent candidate Mashekwa Namakando by a margin of 353 votes in one of the tighter constituency races of Zambia’s 2026 general election.

The result

Wamunyima polled 10,420 votes against Namakando’s 10,067, according to results declared for the Nalolo constituency. The narrow gap places Nalolo among the more closely contested seats of this election cycle, in a constituency where the ruling UPND had invested significant campaign attention in the closing days of the race.

A campaign built on youth and continuity

Wamunyima campaigned in Nalolo alongside President Hichilema, part of a broader UPND push framing him as one of the party’s emerging youth voices. His candidacy had already drawn attention ahead of polling day for what it represented about generational change within the party, and Wamunyima’s win keeps that promise before Nalolo’s electorate rather than leaving it untested.

The scale of his win, just over three hundred votes, suggests the seat remains genuinely competitive rather than settled, a pattern consistent with several rural constituencies in this election where local issues and candidate profile weighed as heavily as party affiliation.

Why it matters

Individual constituency results of this size rarely move national economic indicators on their own, but they matter for what they signal about the shape of the incoming National Assembly. A government with a comfortable majority built from margins like Nalolo’s has less room to assume automatic support on contested legislation, including budget and tax measures, than one built from wider wins. For Western Province specifically, a newly elected, youth profile MP with a direct relationship to the presidency carries practical weight for how constituency development priorities get raised and followed up in Lusaka.

What to watch next

Whether Namakando’s campaign raises any formal challenge to the result, given the narrow margin.
How Nalolo’s result fits into the broader constituency tally as the Electoral Commission of Zambia finalises the national count.
Wamunyima’s first public priorities as MP-elect for the constituency.

Related coverage

Work With The Zambian Economist

Does Alma Mater Matter? Rethinking Prestige in Zambia’s Higher Education Conversation

The Zambian Economist — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:01:05 +0000

By Clement Mumba, Katondo Street Journal

This piece is published by The Zambian Economist through a content-sharing partnership with Katondo Street Journal, where it was originally written and published by Clement Mumba.

After secondary school, the natural instinct of most Zambians is to pursue higher education, and interestingly, this seems to be the priority for everyone, including those who may have talents outside academics. It is therefore no surprise that most Zambians go on to colleges, universities and vocational training centres. Prestige, money and grades may all play a role in determining exactly which institutions learners end up at.

The Weight of a Name

It appears that institutions of higher learning, although accredited to offer quality education, still shape conversations around the perceived quality of the diploma or degree one has attained. Yet at a basic level, any institution accredited to offer education is worth it. Nelson Mandela’s reminder still resonates:

Education is the most powerful tool to change the world.
Nelson Mandela

Perhaps which institution of higher learning one attended should not matter as much as it does. It has become more a matter of prestige, joked about among friends who may not easily take offence if their alma mater is deemed inferior. It is a bit like food: it may not be important to state that you eat better than others, as long as everyone eats well, though not everyone can afford to eat well. That has become the character of alma mater talk in Zambia’s academic environment. While some are elevated for a prestigious alma mater, others are vilified, mocked and questioned on the very same basis, which is why conversations about where someone studied can turn pleasant or distasteful so quickly.

What Should Matter More: Value to Industry

More important than the alma mater is whether a graduate is valuable to industry. School sells the idea that it is a springboard, launching learners into industry with the knowledge and skills to be appreciated in their fields. That argument has not, however, eased the conversation around the name of the institution one graduated from.

This tension between prestige and performance is not unique to the classroom. It shows up again once graduates enter the job market, where Zambia’s youth unemployment numbers tell their own story about how well the pipeline from lecture hall to livelihood is actually working.

Public Versus Private, and a Shift Over Time

Growing up, the general view was that private schools were better than public ones. Private schools were seen as offering more dedicated teachers and stronger English-medium instruction, so those in private schools were envied. That may have been true once, but over time learners in public schools caught up. The remaining differences became technical rather than a matter of dedication or language use.

Post-secondary school tells a different story: public institutions are often now the more prestigious choice, a contrast to the earlier years of schooling. That shift reflects genuine demand from learners, placing emphasis on quality education rather than profit. Higher education may be the most consequential phase for many, since it is usually after this stage that people find jobs, whether by being employed or by creating employment themselves. The question comes naturally, sometimes to congratulate, sometimes to quietly test: “So which university did you go to?”

When “Small Name” Universities Produce Big Results

Logically, what should matter more is whether someone can perform once inside the industry. It is not surprising to hear of graduates underperforming despite high expectations attached to a top university name, though that is far from true of every graduate from a big-name institution.

In contrast, some graduates from “small name” universities go on to shock the world. Their recruitment may have felt like a gamble, with alma mater stirring debate among recruiters regardless of impressive grades, yet when it pays off, it challenges the stereotype attached to those universities. A fairer standard would hold that any accredited institution of higher learning deserves a fair chance for its graduates to be respected. That same principle of giving credentials or track record a fair, practical test shows up in how young entrepreneurs are building ventures regardless of where they trained.

A Fairer Standard for Zambia’s Graduates

In many instances, the quality of education is still tied to the alma mater in the public imagination. It seems to matter which school one attended, sometimes more than the grades scored. Not much of the debate concerns whether graduates are actually of value; it tends to settle instead on the name and brand of the school. Many are careful about what will become their alma mater, and money and grades remain critical to gaining entry into particular universities.

For those who do not land a prestigious institution, there is still reason to take pride in the saying that education is the most powerful tool to change the world, provided the institution is accredited by the relevant bodies. And for those inclined to talk up the prestige of their alma mater, a simpler standard is worth holding onto: what matters is what you graduate with, not which institution you graduate from.

Work With The Zambian Economist

The Stone the Builders Rejected: Iris Kaingu’s Long Road to Mwandi

The Zambian Economist — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 08:17:16 +0000

Iris Kaingu has spent over a decade as one of Zambia’s most talked about, and most publicly judged, women. On 13 August 2026, Mwandi Constituency’s Returning Officer declared her duly elected Member of Parliament, defeating the ruling UPND’s Sibeso Sefulo 6,595 votes to 6,110 as an independent candidate, a result The Zambian Economist has covered separately. Beyond the numbers, her candidacy is the story worth telling: what it costs a woman to keep showing up in Zambian public life, and what her win says about the people of Mwandi’s willingness to judge her on her own terms.

Introduction

Mwandi is not an easy constituency to win. Split by the geography of Western Province and long overlooked in national development conversations, it has a history of returning familiar names: Iris Kaingu’s own father, Michael Liwanga Kaingu, represented the seat after the 2006 and 2011 elections. When Iris Kaingu first stood for Mwandi in 2021, on a Patriotic Front ticket, ECZ’s official results show she placed third with 2,831 votes, well behind the UPND’s Sibeso Sefulo, who won with 5,148, and independent candidate Lisulo Siloba, who took 2,972. By most measures, that was the end of a short-lived political run for a woman better known, at the time, for a very different kind of headline.

Five years later, after the 13 August 2026 vote, Kaingu was declared the winner in Mwandi, this time as an independent candidate. As our earlier coverage set out, the declared margin was 485 votes, 6,595 to 6,110. Getting to this point meant absorbing a decade of public judgement, walking away from a party that had welcomed her, and, by her own account, turning down a direct offer from the President of Zambia to make her withdraw.

The Chapter She Didn’t Choose

Kaingu’s public life began in a way she did not choose and could not control. In 2012, a private video of her became public without her consent. Zambian authorities went on to convict and fine her under the country’s obscenity laws over the episode, a legal outcome that added an official judgement to what was already a deeply personal violation. Kaingu has since spoken about the experience in stark terms, describing the non-consensual exposure of one’s private life as among the worst things that can happen to a person.

What followed was over a decade in the public eye as a socialite, entrepreneur and media personality, a period she later revisited on her own terms in the 2022 Zambezi Magic docuseries “Life Through Iris,” which let her speak for herself after years of being defined by others. In between, she quietly built a conventional professional record: an undergraduate degree from Malaysia, a Master of Business Administration from a UK university completed in 2015, and a role as Chief Executive Officer of Kozo Group of Companies. None of that erased the headlines. But it gave her a case to make when she eventually returned to the family business of Mwandi politics.

A Recognised Surname, No Inherited Seat

Kaingu joined the UPND in August 2025, a move the party’s chief spokesperson welcomed publicly as her democratic right. Mwandi, however, already had a sitting UPND MP in Sefulo, and only one candidate could carry the party’s ticket. According to a resignation letter dated 3 June 2026 and reported by Mwebantu, her attempt to secure the UPND’s Mwandi nomination did not succeed, and she resigned from the party rather than campaign against it from within.

She filed nomination papers to stand as an independent during the nomination period in May 2026. Some critics argued publicly that the Mwandi seat was not hers to expect by inheritance, a pointed line given her father’s own history representing the constituency. Her campaign also became part of a legal dispute after the ECZ directed her and four other independent candidates, including Gary Nkombo, to replace their approved Candle ballot symbol; the Lusaka High Court granted them leave for judicial review in June 2026, staying the directive while the case proceeded.

A Presidential Approach, and an Answer

Kaingu has said President Hakainde Hichilema personally asked her to withdraw her candidature in exchange for a future government appointment, an approach she said began with a call to her own father asking him to persuade her against standing. Her response, delivered publicly after the President referred to their private conversation himself, was direct: her answer had not changed, and she could not be bought or sold.

The campaign that followed was not gentle. Kaingu was publicly criticised by rival supporters and had her account of conditions in Mwandi, including claims about women giving birth in ox-carts and long walks to clean water and school, directly disputed by opponents citing her own father’s prior tenure as MP. A 2025 Gender Links feature examined the gendered abuse and cyberbullying around her political participation specifically, a pattern that does not settle any argument about her policies but does show her candidacy was judged in a public environment women in politics often face differently from men.

What Mwandi Decided, and What Comes Next

Independent candidates rarely beat a governing party’s chosen contender, particularly in a constituency the ruling party held. Kaingu’s win ranks among the clearer comeback stories of the 2026 election: from a distant third-place finish in 2021 to a personal mandate five years later, without a national party’s organising machine behind her. It is also a reminder that voters do not always transfer their loyalty from a party to whichever candidate carries its symbol.

A comeback story wins attention. Representation is judged on delivery. Now elected, Kaingu will need to show how an independent MP works with national government, Mwandi Town Council and traditional leadership to secure practical gains on roads, schools, health services, farming markets and reliable water, the same list of grassroots needs her campaign was built on.

Why It Matters for Young Women in Politics

Kaingu’s path to this point is not a template anyone would design deliberately. It runs through a privacy violation she did not invite, over a decade of public scrutiny most politicians never face, a party rejection, a court fight over her own ballot symbol, and by her account a direct approach from the country’s sitting president to stand down. But that is precisely what makes her candidacy worth examining seriously rather than as a curiosity. Zambian politics, like most political systems, tends to judge women publicly for exactly the kind of personal history that male politicians are rarely asked to answer for at all. Kaingu ran anyway, lost once, rebuilt a professional record largely unconnected to politics, and ran again on her own terms rather than a party’s.

For young women weighing whether a difficult past disqualifies them from public life, Mwandi’s answer on 13 August was not abstract. It was 6,595 votes.

Key Takeaways

Iris Kaingu, daughter of former Mwandi MP Michael Liwanga Kaingu, was declared duly elected MP for Mwandi Constituency as an independent in the 13 August 2026 election, defeating the UPND’s Sibeso Sefulo 6,595 votes to 6,110.
She first contested the seat in 2021 under the Patriotic Front and placed third with 2,831 votes; her 2026 run followed a failed bid for the UPND’s Mwandi nomination and her resignation from the party in June 2026.
She has said President Hakainde Hichilema personally asked her to withdraw her candidature in exchange for a future government appointment, an offer she said she declined.
Her campaign included a High Court challenge, alongside four other independent candidates, over an ECZ directive to change her approved ballot symbol.
Her early public profile was shaped by a non-consensual leak of a private video in 2012; she has since built a professional record including an MBA and a business leadership role, and addressed her past directly in the 2022 docuseries “Life Through Iris.”

Related Coverage

The Zambian Economist Analyst

Work With The Zambian Economist

Youths in Politics: Imanga Wamunyima Jr and Nalolo’s Test of a Generational Promise

The Zambian Economist — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:32:41 +0000

At 29, Imanga Wamunyima Jr became Zambia’s youngest sitting MP and the only voice from his party in Parliament. As Nalolo’s results from the 2026 election remain outstanding, his five years in office have become a test of what youth representation actually changes for one of Western Province’s most underdeveloped constituencies.

A photograph making the rounds this week shows Imanga Wamunyima Jr walking alongside President Hakainde Hichilema at a campaign event, the two men side by side in a scene that would have seemed unlikely a year ago. Wamunyima built his political career as the lone MP for the Party for National Unity and Progress (PNUP), an opposition voice representing Nalolo Constituency in Western Province. His party’s decision to back President Hichilema and join the UPND-led alliance ahead of the 2026 election reshaped that picture, and Wamunyima’s own seat is now among those awaiting official results from the Electoral Commission of Zambia.

From First-Time Candidate to Zambia’s Youngest MP

Wamunyima is a lawyer by training. He contested the Nalolo seat in 2021 under PNUP, a party headed by economist Highvie Hamududu, and won it at 29, becoming the youngest member of the National Assembly at the time. He has said he was driven to stand by the social inequalities and injustices he saw across the country, with Nalolo itself, a constituency split by the Zambezi River into an east and west bank connected only by a difficult and costly crossing, standing as a direct example of the development gap he wanted to close.

In Parliament, he became a member of the Public Accounts Committee and Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Privileges and Absences. Being the only PNUP MP in the House meant building alliances issue by issue rather than relying on a parliamentary bloc, a position he has described as difficult but one that forced him to engage directly with the substance of each debate rather than vote along party lines.

“The Only Youth in Parliament”

Wamunyima has been one of the more vocal advocates for youth political participation in the current Parliament, describing himself publicly as the only youth sitting in the House. He has argued that youth movements sponsored by older political figures cease to be genuine movements and become projects instead, urging young people to organise independently and turn out in large numbers for elections rather than being used as instruments of others’ political ambitions.

That framing puts him in an unusual position. He has spent his term arguing that young Zambians need to build political power on their own terms, while himself depending on an older generation of PNUP leadership, and now an alliance with the governing UPND, to remain viable in a system still organised around established parties and patronage networks.

Nalolo’s Development Ledger

Wamunyima has focused his constituency work on four areas he has identified as most critical for Nalolo: healthcare, education, agriculture, and water and sanitation. He has pushed for the completion of Nalolo District Hospital and additional health posts, along with new and upgraded secondary schools for a constituency he says has been one of Zambia’s most underdeveloped.

Recent constituency activity reflects that focus. In April 2026, he handed over a newly built classroom block at Muoyo Secondary School, part of a wider push to expand school infrastructure on both banks of the Zambezi. Work has also continued on a mother’s shelter in Makoka Ward, aimed at improving maternal health outcomes in a constituency where distance to health facilities remains a significant barrier.

A New Alliance, A New Test

PNUP’s move to endorse President Hichilema for the 2026 election was not one Wamunyima was involved in deciding. He has said publicly that he was not part of the meeting where Hamududu made the call to join the UPND alliance, and that he wanted the party to weigh the alliance’s track record carefully before committing to it. That tension between a leader’s snap decision and a lone backbencher’s caution captures the position PNUP occupies in Zambian politics: a small party whose influence rests almost entirely on the judgement of its few elected representatives.

Whatever his reservations about how the alliance came together, Wamunyima has since campaigned alongside the president, and Nalolo’s 2026 result will show whether that alignment, and five years of infrastructure delivery, translated into a renewed mandate. Official results for the constituency had not yet been declared as this article was published.

Why It Matters

Zambia’s youth make up the majority of its population, yet Wamunyima’s description of himself as the only youth in Parliament points to a persistent gap between that demographic weight and actual representation. His term offers a concrete test case: whether a young, independently-minded MP from a small party can deliver visible infrastructure gains in a genuinely underdeveloped constituency, and whether voters reward that record when the same MP aligns with a larger coalition rather than standing apart from it. The answer from Nalolo, once it comes, will matter well beyond Western Province.

Related Coverage

Sunday Chanda Concedes Kanchibiya Seat, Defends His Bill 7 Vote in Farewell Statement
Zambia’s Vote Count Enters a Tense Third Day, With ECZ Still the Only Verified Source
Youth Entrepreneurship in Zambia: Grilled Ambition at Desire, Nyumba Yanga

Work With The Zambian Economist

Nalolo, This Is Your Suit for Tomorrow: What One of Zambia’s Youth MPs Tells Us About Youth in Politics

The Zambian Economist — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:32:24 +0000

At 29, Imanga Wamunyima Jr became one of the youth MPs in Zambia’s National Assembly, the sole voice of the Party for National Unity and Progress in Parliament, and the face of Nalolo, one of Western Province’s most underserved constituencies. Ahead of the 2026 general elections, his time in the House is a useful test case for what youth representation actually delivers, and what it still has to prove.

Introduction

Zambia’s Parliament has never had many young faces in it. When Imanga Wamunyima Jr won Nalolo Constituency in the 2021 general election at 29, he became one of the National Assembly’s youth MPs and, for a period, the only MP from his party, the Party for National Unity and Progress (PNUP), led by economist Highvie Hamududu. Nalolo, a rural constituency in the Western Province floodplains, is routinely ranked among the country’s most underdeveloped seats, short on secondary schools, health posts and reliable water access.

Five years on, with the 2026 elections approaching, Wamunyima’s record offers a concrete answer to a question that comes up every election cycle: does putting young people in Parliament change what Parliament does for constituencies like Nalolo, or does it change only who sits in the chamber?

A Lawyer in the House

Wamunyima is a lawyer by training, and it shows in his committee assignments. He sits on the Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises how ministries and public bodies spend money against the Auditor General’s findings, and served as Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Privileges, Absences and Support Services. By late 2025 he was chairing a Select Committee gathering public submissions on a proposed constitutional amendment, Bill No. 7.

That chairmanship also produced the sharpest criticism of his tenure so far. Commentary published in December 2025 accused him of stepping outside the impartiality expected of a Select Committee chair after he publicly challenged the Law Association of Zambia’s president during committee proceedings and followed up with a social media post on the exchange. The episode is a reminder that youth in a leadership role does not exempt an MP from the same scrutiny any chairperson would face, and Wamunyima’s critics have held him to that standard directly.

What Nalolo Has Received

Away from Lusaka, Wamunyima’s public record centres on the basics his constituency has long lacked. He has pushed for completion of Nalolo District Hospital, additional health posts, ambulances, new secondary schools and boreholes across the constituency, framing healthcare, education, agriculture and market access, and water and sanitation as his four priorities. Constituency Development Fund records show tangible, if modest, delivery against that list: in April 2026, Nalolo Town Council confirmed the handover of a newly built classroom block at Muoyo Secondary School, alongside continuing works on a mother’s shelter in Makoka Ward.

These are small-scale, CDF-funded projects rather than transformative infrastructure, and that scale is itself the point. For a constituency with limited services, incremental delivery on health posts, classrooms and boreholes is the currency most voters will actually judge an MP by, not national headlines.

The Youth Argument, Made From Inside Parliament

Wamunyima has been vocal about what youth political participation should look like, and has been sharply critical of movements that aren’t youth-led in substance. In a widely shared message ahead of the 2026 elections, he argued that a youth movement funded and directed by older political figures stops being a movement and becomes something closer to a project controlled by others, and called on young Zambians to use their numbers rather than be used by them. He paired that with a direct appeal for higher youth turnout and participation in the 2026 polls.

It’s a pointed argument from someone positioned to make it: as the only PNUP MP for most of his term, Wamunyima has had to build a political profile without the machinery of a larger party behind him, which is closer to the position most young aspiring politicians are actually in than the well-resourced youth wings he has criticised.

A Second Term, and What It Would Say About Confidence in Youth

Wamunyima stood again for Nalolo in the 13 August 2026 general election, this time on the UPND ticket after PNUP’s alliance with the ruling party, rather than PNUP. As of this writing, the Electoral Commission of Zambia has not yet formally declared the Nalolo result, so his second term is not yet confirmed. But the fact that Nalolo’s voters had the chance to renew his mandate at all, five years after first trusting a 29-year-old first-time candidate, is itself notable. A constituency choosing to send the same young MP back to Parliament, rather than reverting to an older or more established figure, would be a direct measure of how much confidence the people of Nalolo place in young leadership, not just as an experiment in 2021, but as a considered choice repeated in 2026. Once the ECZ declaration is in, that verdict, one way or the other, deserves its own follow-up piece.

Business, Investor and Policy Implications

For Nalolo and similarly underserved constituencies: CDF-funded classroom blocks, health posts and boreholes are unglamorous, but they are the delivery mechanism that actually reaches rural Western Province. Tracking CDF disbursement against completed projects, constituency by constituency, remains one of the more useful public accountability exercises available to voters and civil society ahead of 2026.

For parties recruiting for 2026: Wamunyima’s PNUP ticket showed a young, independently profiled candidate can win a seat without a dominant party machine behind him. Parties courting the youth vote face a credibility test: financed and directed youth wings will draw exactly the “project, not movement” criticism Wamunyima has already put on the record.

For governance watchers: a young MP chairing a constitutionally significant Select Committee, and then facing public criticism over impartiality, is a normal part of parliamentary accountability. It is worth watching how the committee’s eventual report and recommendations on Bill No. 7 are received, rather than treating the criticism as the final word.

Conclusion

Imanga Wamunyima Jr’s five years in Parliament do not settle the debate about youth representation in Zambian politics, but they sharpen it. Age brought him the seat and the attention. What has followed, committee work, incremental CDF delivery in Nalolo, public criticism over impartiality, and a public argument about what youth political participation should mean, is the same mix of scrutiny and modest progress any MP faces. As Zambia heads into the 2026 elections with youth turnout again a live question, Nalolo’s experience suggests the suit fits. His bid for a second term, on a new party ticket, is the most direct test yet of whether that confidence holds: not just whether young people can win a first seat, but whether a constituency chooses to keep one in place.

Key Takeaways

Imanga Wamunyima Jr became one of Zambia’s youth MPs at 29, representing Nalolo Constituency for the Party for National Unity and Progress.
His committee work spans the Public Accounts Committee, the Privileges, Absences and Support Services Committee, and, more recently, chairing a Select Committee on Bill No. 7, which drew public criticism over impartiality in December 2025.
Constituency delivery has focused on health posts, a district hospital, secondary schools, boreholes and CDF-funded projects such as the April 2026 classroom handover at Muoyo Secondary School.
He has publicly argued that party-funded youth wings undermine genuine youth political participation, and has called for high youth turnout in the 2026 general elections.
He contested Nalolo again in the 13 August 2026 general election under the UPND banner; the ECZ had not yet formally declared the result at the time of writing, but the constituency’s willingness to consider renewing his mandate is itself a marker of confidence in youth leadership.

Related Coverage

The Zambian Economist Analyst

Work With The Zambian Economist

Extreme Poverty Fell to 48%. Is Zambia’s Growth Reaching Ordinary Households?

The Zambian Economist — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 20:04:49 +0000

By Zambian Economist Analyst

Zambia’s extreme poverty rate eased from 49% to 48% between 2024 and 2025, even as GDP per capita growth more than doubled. Here is why the two numbers are not moving together.

One Point, Two Years

Zambia’s extreme poverty rate eased from 49% in 2024 to 48% in 2025, according to the African Development Bank. Over the same period, real GDP per capita growth more than doubled, from 1.0% to 2.4%. The two numbers moving together, growth accelerating while poverty barely shifts, is the honest headline: Zambia’s recovery is real, but it is not yet fast enough to be felt broadly.

Why Growth and Poverty Can Decouple

GDP per capita is an average. It rises when mining output, agricultural harvests or services expand, even if the gains concentrate in a relatively small number of formal jobs, capital owners and urban areas. Nearly half of Zambians living below the extreme poverty line are disproportionately in rural areas, where subsistence and smallholder agriculture, rather than mining or finance, still define most household income.

What Government Is Leaning On

The African Development Bank notes that Zambia is investing in education, health, agriculture and cash transfers specifically to reduce inequality, rather than relying on aggregate growth alone to do the work. The Constituency Development Fund, which has grown from K1.6 million per constituency in 2021 to K40 million in 2026, a national total of K6.245 billion, is one of the more visible channels for that redistribution, financing local infrastructure, bursaries and community projects directly at ward level.

Indicator	2024	2025
Extreme poverty rate	49%	48%
Real GDP per capita growth	1.0%	2.4%
Unemployment rate	n/a in this release	10.3%
Human Development Index		0.595

Business and Policy Implications

For consumer-facing businesses, a near-static poverty rate means the addressable market for discretionary spending is growing only slowly. For policymakers, the AfDB’s framing points toward a clear conclusion: further poverty reduction will depend on how efficiently large, fast-growing transfers such as the CDF translate into durable household income, not on GDP growth headlines alone.

Key Takeaways

Zambia’s extreme poverty rate eased only slightly, from 49% in 2024 to 48% in 2025.
Real GDP per capita growth more than doubled over the same period, to 2.4%.
Education, health, agriculture and cash transfers, including the expanded CDF, are the government’s main redistribution tools.