Samia Hassan Suluhu Set To Become Tanzania’s First Female President + 11 Facts About Her

Samia Hassan Suluhu is set to become the new President of Tanzania following the death of John Magufuli on Wednesday.

Suluhu will be making history as not only Tanzania’s first female president but also the first in East Africa.

Here are some interesting facts to know about her.

1. Suluhu was born on January 27, 1960, in the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

2. She studied statistics at the Zanzibar Institute of Financial Administration before getting employed by the Ministry of Planning and Development as a clerk.

3. She graduated from the Institute of Development Management (Mzumbe University) with an advanced diploma in public administration in 1986  and was employed on a project funded by the World Food Programme upon graduation.

4. She attended the University of Manchester between 1992 and 1994 and graduated with a postgraduate diploma in economics.

5. Suluhu joined politics in 2000 when she was first elected as a special seat member to the Zanzibar House of Representatives and was later appointed a minister by President Amani Karume.

6. She was the only high-ranking woman minister in that cabinet.

7. She was re-elected in 2005 and was re-appointed as a minister in another portfolio.

8. She marked her entry into national electoral politics when she was elected to the National Assembly in 2010 as the MP representing Makunduchi constituency,

9. She was appointed Minister of State for Union matters for the office of the Vice President in 2014 and was also elected the Vice-chairperson for the Constitutional Assembly, the body tasked with drafting the country’s new constitution in the same year.

10.She became the first female vice-president in the history of the country when Magufuli won the presidential election in 2015.

11.Suluhu is married to Hafidh Ameir and together they have three sons and a daughter who is a parliamentarian in Zanzibar.