PROFILE
Hon. Lady Justice Ruth Lumbongo Mbambi is a Judge of the High Court, appointed on 27th May 2026. Prior to her appointment, she served as Registrar of the Family and Children’s Division of the High Court from 2022.
Justice Mbambi holds a Master of Laws Degree in Human Rights Law and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Zambia. She also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Legislative Drafting from the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE). She was admitted to the Bar in December 2008.
Justice Mbambi joined the Judiciary of Zambia as a Court Messenger at Chambishi Local Court, where she served from 2002 to 2007. She was later appointed Magistrate Class II at the Lusaka Subordinate Court from 2007 to 2008 and rose through the ranks, serving as Resident Magistrate from 2008 to 2011 and Senior Resident Magistrate from 2011 to 2012.
In 2012, she was appointed Senior Research Advocate in the Supreme Court, where she served until 2022, while concurrently serving as District Registrar of the High Court from 2016 to 2022. In 2022, she was appointed Registrar of the Family and Children’s Division of the High Court, a position she held until her appointment to the Bench.
During her Legal Learner Practice, she served as an Assistant Legal Officer from 2007 to 2008 at Mvunga Associates.
Justice Mbambi has completed several professional development courses, including the China-Africa Legal Professionals Exchange Project in Beijing, China, in 2015, and multiple international legal and human rights training programmes in Copenhagen, Denmark, under the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) Fellowship Programme in 2012.
Justice Mbambi has held various institutional and committee appointments, serving as Head of the Child Justice Forum from 2022 to May 2026 and as a member of the Chief Justice’s Advisory Committee on Gender in Development since 2018. She previously served on the Chief Justice’s Advisory Committee on Training and Continuing Education from 2012 to 2018 and as Secretary of the Zambia Association of Women Judges from 2009 to 2012.
Justice Mbambi was appointed a Research Fellow of the China-Africa Legal Research Centre in 2015. She is also a Judicial Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) and a member of the Magistrates and Judges Association of Zambia (MAJAZ), the Zambia Association of Women Judges (ZAWJ), and the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).