Biography of Samia Suluhu Hassan – President of Tanzania
Samia Suluhu Hassan who is serving as the sixth and current president of Tanzania was born on 27 January 1960 in Makunduchi, an old town on Unguja island, in the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
She is a member of the ruling social-democrat Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and she became just the third female head of government of an East African Community (EAC) country after Sylvie Kinigi in Burundi and Agathe Uwilingiyimana in Rwanda and is also the first female president of Tanzania.
Tanzanian first Female President Samia Hassan took over office on 19 March 2021 after the death of Late President John Magufuli on 17 March 2021.
Sami Hassan Education
Samia Hassan finished her secondary education in 1977 and just after her secondary school education, she was employed by the Ministry of Planning and Development as a clerk and upon graduation with her public administration degree.
She was employed on a project funded by the World Food Programme and began working then she subsequently pursued a number of short courses on a part-time basis before she graduated from the Institute of Development Management (present-day Mzumbe University) with an advanced diploma in public administration in 1986.
Between 1992 and 1994, Samia Hassan attended the University of Manchester and earned a postgraduate diploma in economics between 1992 and 1994 and In 2015, she would obtain her MSc in Community Economic Development via a joint program between the Open University of Tanzania and the Southern New Hampshire University.
She is a native of Zanzibar and served as a minister in the semi-autonomous region during the administration of President Amani Karume before she served as the Member of Parliament for Makunduchi constituency from 2010 to 2015 and was the Minister of State in the Vice-President’s Office for Union Affairs from 2010 to 2015 and was elected as the Vice-Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly in 2014 tasked with the drafting of the country’s new constitution.
Samia Hassan became Tanzania’s first-ever female vice-president following the 2015 general election after being elected on the CCM ticket with President Magufuli before Suluhu and Magufuli were re-elected to a second term in 2020.
Samia decided ran for public office for the first time in 2000 where she was elected as a special seat member to the Zanzibar House of Representatives and was appointed a minister by President Amani Karume and she happened to be the only high-ranking woman minister in the cabinet and was “looked down on” by her male colleagues because she was female and she was re-elected in 2005 before she was re-appointed as a minister in another portfolio.
Samia would later sought election to the National Assembly In 2010 standing in the parliamentary constituency of Makunduchi and winning by more than 80% and she was appointed as the Minister of State for Union Affairs by President Jakaya Kikwete.
Samia Hassan married Hafidh Ameir in 1978 who is an agricultural officer before retiring in 2014. They are blessed with rour children and her daughter Wanu Hafidh Ameir (born 1982) while the couple’s second child is set to take the over a special seat member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives.
