Tanzania’s Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan has been thrust from the obscure role of vice president to become Tanzania’s first female leader after Late President John Magufuli’s sudden death.
According to the country’s constitution, the 61-year-old, soft-spoken, Muslim woman is to serve the remainder of Magufuli’s second five-year term, which would lapse by 2025.
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Hassan who is a former office clerk and development worker, began her political career in 2000 in her native Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago, before being elected to the national assembly on mainland Tanzania and assigned a senior ministry.
She was able to rise through several ranks until she was nominated by Magufuli as his running mate in his first presidential election campaign in 2015.
The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party dominated the votes during the election leading to the victory of Magufuli which led to the swearing-in of Hassan as the country’s first-ever female vice president.
Although the last October poll according to opposition and independent observers, was marred by irregularities but the duo got re-elected.
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Hassan who would sometimes represent Magufuli on trips abroad had disappeared from national television until her announcement of the demise of the President at age 61, on Wednesday, following a short illness .
She solemnly declared 14 days of mourning, adding that she will consult the CCM over the appointing of a new vice president.
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Born on January 27, 1960 in Zanzibar, a former slaving hub and trading outpost in the Indian Ocean, Hassan holds university qualifications from Tanzania, Britain and the United States.
The mother of four has spoken publicly to encourage Tanzanian women and girls to pursue their dreams and she’s also among a very small circle of women to lead East African nations.
Tanzania would therefore join leagues of Africa countries like Burundi, which briefly had an acting female president in 1993, while both Mauritius and Ethiopia have had women appointed to the ceremonial role of president.
© ControlTV 2021.
