Samia Suluhu Hassan will become from today Tanzania’s new
president, following the death of President John Magufuli on Wednesday.
She will be making history, as the first woman to be
president in Tanzania and in east Africa.
Hassan, now 61, had also made history, when she became the
first female vice-president in 2015.
She will complete Magufuli’s five-year second term, which he
began in November 2020.
President Hassan was born in the semi-autonomous archipelago
of Zanzibar on 27 January, 1960.
And she now makes another record as the first Tanzanian
president from Zanzibar.
After completing her secondary education in 1977, she got
married in 1978 and now has four children, one of whom is a parliamentarian in
Zanzibar.
Her first job was when she was employed by the Ministry of
Planning and Development as a clerk.
According to a profile published in Wikipedia, she pursued a
number of short-courses on a part-time basis.
In 1986, she graduated from the Institute of Development
Management (present-day Mzumbe University) with an advanced diploma in public
administration.
Upon graduation, she was employed on a project funded by the
World Food Programme.
Between 1992 and 1994, she attended the University of
Manchester and graduated with a postgraduate diploma in economics.
In 2015, she obtained her MSc in Community Economic
Development via a joint-programme between the Open University of Tanzania and
the Southern New Hampshire University.
In 2000, she decided to join politics. She was elected as a
special seat member to the Zanzibar House of Representatives and was appointed
a minister by President Amani Karume.
She was the only high-ranking woman minister in the cabinet
and was “looked down on” by her male colleagues because of her gender.
She was re-elected in 2005 and was re-appointed as a
minister in another portfolio.
In 2010, she sought election to the National Assembly,
standing in the parliamentary constituency of Makunduchi and winning by more
than 80%.
President Jakaya Kikwete appointed her as the Minister of
State for Union Affairs.
In 2014, she was elected as the Vice Chairperson of the
Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the country’s new constitution.
In July 2015, CCM’s presidential nominee John Magufuli chose
her as his running mate for the 2015 election, making her the first female
running mate in the party’s history.
She subsequently became the first female vice-president in
the history of the country upon Magufuli’s victory in the election.
After Magufuli’s death on 17 March 2021, Suluhu
automatically became the 6th President of Tanzania, the first Zanzibari
president and the country’s first female president.
Hassan was the chief mourner for Magufuli as she announced
his death.
She said Magufuli was admitted on March 6 to Jakaya Kikwete
Cardiac Institute for heart problems and discharged the next day.
A week later he felt bad and was rushed to Mzena Hospital
where he was getting treatment under supervision of doctors from the cardiac
institute, she said.
“Dear Tanzanians, it is sad to announce that today 17 March
2021 around 6 p.m. we lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli who died
from heart disease at Mzena hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was getting
treatment,” she said on state broadcaster TBC.
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