Samia Suluhu Hassan Becomes Tanzania’s First Woman President 2021
Samia Suluhu Hassan, 61, made history on Friday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president at State House, government offices in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city.
Wearing a hijab and holding a Koran in her right hand, she Hassan took the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice Ibrahim Jumavowing, in which she vowed to defend the East African country’s constitution.
The inauguration was witnessed by Cabinet members and former Tanzanian presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Jakaya Kikwete, and Abeid Karume.
Hassan’s inauguration comes two days after she announced the death of President John Magufuli after he had not been seen in public for more than two weeks.
“It’s not a good day to talk to you because I have a heart wound,” Hassan said, speaking in Swahili. “Today I have taken an oath different from the rest I have taken in my career. Those were carried away in happiness. Today I took the highest oath of my office in mourning, ”she said.
He said that Magufuli “who has always liked teaching” had prepared her for the task that lay ahead of her. “Nothing will go wrong,” she assured, urging the nation’s people to be united.
“This is the time to come together and connect. It’s time to bury our differences, show love and look forward with confidence, “she said.” It is not time to point the finger at us, but to hold hands and move forward to build the new Tanzania that President Magufuli aspired to. to.”
Hassan will complete Magufuli’s second term in office, which she had just started after she won the elections in October 2020.
Hassan has had a meteoric rise in politics in a field dominated by men. Both Tanzania and the surrounding region of East Africa are slowly emerging from patriarchy.
After Magufuli chose her as her running mate in 2015, Hassan became the first female vice president of Tanzania. She was the second woman to become vice president of the region since Specioza Naigaga Wandira of Uganda, who served from 1994 to 2003.
Born in Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous archipelago of Tanzania in 1960, Hassan attended primary and secondary school at a time when very few girls in Tanzania received an education, as parents thought that a woman’s place was that of wife and mistress. From home.
After graduating from high school in 1977, Hassan studied statistics and began working for the government, at the Ministry of Planning and Development. She worked for a World Food Program project in Tanzania in 1992 and later attended Manchester University in London to obtain a postgraduate diploma in economics. In 2005, she obtained a master’s degree in community economic development through a joint program between the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the USA.
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Hassan entered politics in 2000 when he became a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. In 2010 he won the Makunduchi parliamentary seat with more than 80% of the vote. In 2014, she was appointed a cabinet minister and became vice president of the Constitutional Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution for Tanzania, where she earned respect for skillfully handling various challenges.
As president, Hassan’s first task will be to rally the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, behind her, said Ed Hobey-Hamsher, senior Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft Risk Analysts. The party has been in power since the independence of Tanzania.
Hassan is the second woman in East Africa to serve as head of government. Sylvia Kiningi from Burundi served as president of that small landlocked country for almost four months until February 1994.
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