Mpanzu Bamenga | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Representatives | |
Assumed office 6 December 2023 | |
Municipal councillor of Eindhoven | |
In office 28 April 2021 – 30 March 2022 | |
In office 3 July 2018 – November 2018 | |
In office 27 March 2014 – 29 March 2018 | |
Personal details | |
Born | P. Bamenga 12 July 1985 Kinshasa, Zaire (present-day DR Congo) |
Political party | Democrats 66 |
Residence(s) | Eindhoven, Netherlands |
Alma mater | Radboud University (LLM) |
P. "Mpanzu" Bamenga (born 12 July 1985) is a Congolese-born Dutch jurist, human rights activist and politician of the Democrats 66 (D66), who has served as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives since 2023. He previously held a seat in the municipal council of Eindhoven from 2014 to 2018, and from 2021 to 2022.[1]
Bamenga was born in Kinshasa, Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1994, at the age of 8, he fled to the Netherlands with his mother and brother, where he lived as an undocumented refugee for thirteen years.[2][3] In 2007, he was granted a residence permit by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin.[3]
In 2021, Bamenga won an annual prize awarded by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights for his legal battle against racial profiling by the Royal Marechaussee.[4][5] On 22 November 2023, he ran in the 2023 general election as the ninth candidate on the D66 list, and was elected into the House of Representatives.[1] He was installed as MP on 6 December 2023.[1]
Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party seats | Individual | |||||||
2017 | House of Representatives | Democrats 66 | 35 | 834 | 19 | Lost | [6] | |
2023 | House of Representatives | Democrats 66 | 9 | 4,264 | 9 | Won | [7] |