Kimberly, The Girl from Lango Who’s Coming for the Miss Universe Crown

Kimberly Jael Aremo Acio, 19, from Kole District in Northern Uganda, is one of the most compelling young women in the running to represent Uganda at Miss Universe — and she is dead serious about why she’s here.

Beauty, Brains, and Biomedical Engineering

Before pageants entered the picture, Kimberly had a very different plan. She finished high school as a valedictorian, top of her class, and had her sights set on studying biomedical engineering. So how does a science girl end up on the Miss Universe Uganda stage?

“Life has very many curveballs,” she says, “and you just have to embrace them.” She added while speaking during an interview on Sanyu FM’s mid-morning show, ‘The Lounge’

What drew her in wasn’t the glitz. It was the advocacy. The moment she read that Miss Universe had a development and advocacy platform, she said, yep, I have to be here. This isn’t a girl chasing a crown. This is a girl who found a megaphone big enough for the things she already believed in.

University isn’t cancelled, by the way, just on pause. “I will still join university. But right now I’m going to focus on this.”

From Bullied Kid to Future Queen

Here’s what makes Kimberly’s story hit differently. The poised, articulate young woman who showed up to 88.2 Sanyu FM on Wednesday 17th June, glowing, composed, ready,  was not always this version of herself.

Between the ages of 10 and 13, she was bullied. Badly enough that she dreaded going to school every day. Badly enough that she kept it from her parents, because “when you report, things just become so much worse for you.”

She never really got closure on the why and she’s made peace with not needing it. “Regardless of what you have had to endure,” she told Sanyu listeners, “you still have the choice to be a better person and still choose to make an impact.”

In fact, she credits the bullying with putting her here. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I was bullied, I know I wouldn’t have been here today.”

The Kimberly of three years ago, she insists, would never have entered an individual competition. She was always a group person, safer in a team. Now she’s gunning for one of the biggest individual stages in the world. “I decided to take the biggest stage, which is Miss Universe Uganda.”

Somewhere, the bullies are listening to the radio.

On a Mission for the Youth

Ask Kimberly what she stands for and she gets precise fast. Her platform is youth mentorship and she has a way of framing it that sticks.

“Every young person carries fire within them. Mentorship is simply someone lighting that match.”

Her role model, beyond her mother (more on her in a moment), is Ugandan lawyer and activist Miria Matembe, a woman she admires for her fearless honesty. “When she speaks, everyone listens. That’s who I aspire to be.” She effused.

When asked how she wants to be remembered, she didn’t reach for pageant-speak. She said: “I want to be remembered as the young, vibrant person that made everyone feel seen.” She wants to be a depiction of Uganda’s energy. She wants investment in young people to be treated as the urgent priority she believes it is.

Her advocacy programme is still being developed — but something tells you it will be worth the wait.

Just Kimberly, Though

Away from the stage, the cameras, and the competition prep, Kimberly Jael Aremo Acio is refreshingly, hilariously normal.

She is, by her own proud admission, a Pepsi addict. “I take it more than water. It’s so serious, actually.” When the Sanyu team handed her one during the break, she was practically glowing. Pepsi sponsorship, manifested.

She makes content, she started at the beginning of this year to show people that “you can still do what you want, regardless of the instability, the confusion or the growth.” She’s an introvert who’s been throwing herself into the most extroverted competition imaginable. She prefers sneakers over heels “I can’t walk in heels right now“, she confesses. Movies over books, and she is currently rewatching The Devil Wears Prada which, given her TikTok handle Jael Wears Prada, tracks perfectly.

She loves mammals. Specifically furry ones. She said mammals on purpose, because “if I say animals, people are going to assume reptiles as well.” A girl who knows exactly what she means.

And her deepest, most traumatic secret? As a little girl in the village, she spotted a herdsman managing goats and decided she wanted in. He handed her the rope. The goat had other ideas.

“Next thing you know, the goat took off and I was dragged on the ground.”

She was afraid of goats for years. She is, somehow, completely fine.

The Girl from Lango

If her life were a movie and it’s shaping up to be a good one, she already has the title ready: The Girl from Lango.

She’s representing Northern Uganda with a quiet, grounded pride. She’s walking into a competition that’s making its debut on Ugandan soil for the very first time, carrying the weight of that history without letting it crack her composure. “I try to remember that I’m on my own journey,” she said on Sanyu. “At the end of the race, it’s just me and the person that I want to be at the end of it all.”

That clarity — at 19 — is something most people spend decades chasing.

Cast your daily free vote at africavotes.com/n/kimberly.jael.aremo.acio , one vote per day.

Find Kimberly Jael Aremo Acio on Instagram @KimberlyJaelAremo or TikTok@JaelWearsPrada — the voting link is also in both bios. Uganda, do your part.