By Rogers Wanambwa

KIU, Main Campus - Following the death of the late President John Pombe Magufuli on 17th March, 2021, Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan - who has been Tanzania's first female Vice President - is to be sworn in as president today, 19th March, 2021.

Samia, aged 61 years, became Tanzania's first female Vice President following the 2015 general election, after being elected on the CCM ticket, along with President Magufuli. 

Political Life

Samia and Magufuli were re-elected to a second term in 2020. However, before her tenure as Vice President, she served as the Member of Parliament for Makunduchi Constituency from 2010 to 2015 and was also the Minister of State in the Vice President's Office for Union Affairs from 2010 to 2015.

Education Life

In 1986, she graduated from the Institute of Development Management (present-day Mzumbe University) with an advanced Diploma in Public Administration. 

Thereafter, she attended the University of Manchester and graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Economics. This was between1992 and 1994. 

Additionally, 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. 

Other life

Samia is married to Hafidh Ameir, at present a retired agricultural officer. They have four children. Her daughter Mwanu Hafidh Ameir (born 1982), the couple's second child, is a special seat member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives.