Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, 92, is seeking a new mandate in the 12 October election — and now faces an unlikely critic: his daughter. In a mid-September TikTok video watched millions of times, 27-year-old Brenda Biya urged voters not to back her father, saying he had “made too many people suffer,” and declaring she would renounce her family and its support.
Brenda, known online for luxury posts — diamond-set Rolexes, Rolls-Royce photo shoots and private-jet selfies — stunned a nation where Biya has ruled for 42 years amid economic stagnation and tight political control. The World Bank says the average Cameroonian lives on under $5 a day; GDP per capita remains below its 1986 peak. A separatist conflict in the Anglophone regions has killed more than 6,500 since 2017.
Her video ricocheted across West African media but is unlikely to shift the outcome given Biya’s entrenched power. Another win would extend his rule toward his 100th year. He has not anointed a successor, though local speculation often centers on his son, Franck.
Brenda later deleted the post and issued an apology video praising her father and telling viewers to make up their own minds — without saying she would vote for him. The sunglasses-reflected script in that clip fueled jokes that her allowance had been cut or that she was speaking under pressure.
It was not her first public break with the regime’s conservatism: in 2024 she came out as lesbian — a risky act in Cameroon, where same-sex relations carry penalties of up to five years. LGBTQ influencer Shaqiro, now in Brussels after a 2021 arrest in Cameroon, called Brenda’s stance a “blessing” for the community.
Court records in Switzerland this year — where Brenda was convicted of defaming an online influencer — showed she resides there, has rooms booked year-round at Geneva’s five-star Intercontinental, and is financed by her parents despite failed ventures in Beverly Hills and Yaoundé. In 2017, the OCCRP estimated the Biya family’s Swiss hotel bills at about $65 million since 1982.
Biya’s office has not commented on his daughter’s video. Through a U.S. lawyer, Brenda declined to discuss the election. The government says it is cracking down on corruption and promises economic revival, while the U.N. has warned arrests and threats against critics mean the vote is unlikely to be free or fair. Main rival Maurice Kamto was barred by the electoral commission in July.