Victoria Kalima

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victoria Kalima

Minister of Gender

In office

6 October 2016[1] – 11 June 2018

President Edgar Lungu

Preceded by Nkandu Luo

Member of the National Assembly for Kasenengwa

In office

2011 – 11 June 2018

Preceded by Vera Tembo

Succeeded by Sensio Banda

Personal details

Born 4 October 1972

Kitwe, Zambia

Died 11 June 2018 (aged 45)

Lusaka, Zambia

Political party MMD (until 2016)

Patriotic Front (2016–2018)

Victoria Kalima Phiri (4 October 1972 – 11 June 2018)[2] was a Zambian politician

who was Minister of Gender and member of the National
Assembly for Kasenengwa from 2016 and 2011, respectively, till her death.
Early life[edit]
Kalima was born on 4 October 1972 at Kitwe,[2][3] the third child of Mustered and
Evelyn Kalima.[4] She attended Kabale Primary School and Lwitikila Girls School
in Mpika.[4] She studied for an MBA at Cavendish University in Lusaka[4] and also
gained diplomas in agricultural business management and international relations.
She then started a company from scratch, plant agr-chem services, growing it to one
of the best agro dealerships in Zambia.[2]

Career[edit]
Kalima worked as a business administrator [2] for the Zambia Cooperate Federation in
Lusaka from 1994 to 1998. In 1999, she established and was CEO of her own
company, Plant Agri-Chem.[3]
Kalima was selected as the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy candidate for
the Kasenengwa constituency for the 2011 general elections. Although she was
elected to the National Assembly with a majority of over 17,500, [5] she was later
criticised by Ngoni Chief Madzimawe for not visiting her constituency enough. [6] Her
victory in the elections was overturned in the Supreme Court in December 2013 on
the basis that she had given out bicycles and chitenge material to voters and claimed
that the Patriotic Front would kill old people and stop the distribution of antiretroviral
drugs.[7] Kalima was re-selected as the MMD candidate and contested the 2014 by-
election, in which she was returned to the National Assembly with a reduced majority
of 7,452.[8]
After being re-elected, she joined the Committee on Government Assurances and
the Committee on Legal Affairs, Human Rights, National Guidance, Gender Matters
and Governance.[2] During the 2015 presidential elections she campaigned
for Hakainde Hichilema[9] of the United Party for National Development, leading to
most local councillors in Kasenengwa saying that they would seek to ensure she lost
her seat in the general elections the following year. [10]
Prior to the 2016 general elections Kalima called for an alliance between the MMD
and Patriotic Front.[11] Despite previously criticising other MMD politicians for doing
so,[12] she later defected to the Patriotic Front and was nominated as the party's
candidate in Kasenengwa in the elections. She was re-elected to the National
Assembly with a 9,259 vote majority.[13] Following the elections she was
appointed Minister of Gender.[14]
In 2012 she defended the rights of journalists who got detained and whose cameras
were confiscated.[15] In 2017 she became an activist against gender inequality and
child marriages.[16] The same year she also proposed a revised version of Marriage
Bill which will ban any marriages between a man and a woman until both are at least
21 years of age.[17]

Personal life[edit]
Kalima was a widow,[2] and the goddaughter of former President Rupiah Banda.
[18]
 She had two children and was a devout Christian.[4][3] Kalima died at Maina Soko
Military Hospital in Lusaka on 11 June 2018 at the age of 45