All eyes on late Magufuli’s vice-president Hassan as she is expected to become first female president for Tanzania

* She has been Magufuli’s vice-president since 2015

* Magufuli had only traveled out of Tanzania eight times and never leaving Africa

* Over the years Hassan has been the face of Tanzania in most of the international meetings

* Representing Tanzania at all UN, AU, SADC and EAC meetings

The African Report & Standardmedia.co.ke

Following the death of Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli, all eyes are now on vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is set to become the east African first female president if the constitution will be respected.

The 61-year-old Hassan is from the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, which is about 99% Muslim and she has been Magufuli’s vice-president since 2015.

Prior to that, she was a minister of state under the vice-president’s office and as served in the government of Zanzibar in different capacities.

She is not popular across the CCM’s different factions. According to a Tanzanian political analyst, hardline Magufuli supporters and Christian nationalists oppose her replacing him.

Tanzania has never had a president who is from Zanzibar, which has experienced several contested elections in recent years.

According to a recent political risk report consulted by The Africa Report: “the relative weakness (in political terms) of Samia Suluhu will also contribute to a slowdown in decision-making. Such a transition of power may take many weeks.”

But other reports state that Hassan is backed by factions within the ruling party that support former president Jakaya Kikwete, especially those from Muslim communities.

Since he was sworn into office in 2015, President Magufuli had only traveled out of Tanzania eight times and never leaving Africa — only traveled to the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Namibia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

What this has meant over the years is that his vice-president, Hassan has been the face of Tanzania in most of the international meetings — representing Tanzania at all UN, AU, SADC and EAC meetings held outside Tanzania.

Interesting to note, Magufuli’s last public appearance was during a virtual East African Heads of State meeting where he appeared but only for the introduction and then left Hassan to continue with the rest of the discussion.

Hassan was born on January 27, 1960 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and  went to school in Zanzibar and studied statistics at the Zanzibar Institute of Financial Administration before getting employed by the Ministry of Planning and Development as a clerk.

In 1986, she joined Mzumbe University for advanced studies in Public Administration before joining the Institute of Management for Leaders, Hyderabad in India or a course in management.

She also attended the University of Manchester for her postgraduate diploma in economic and in 2005 she did her master degree in community economic development through a joint program between Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University, USA.

She was first elected as a member of the Zanzibar House of Representative for special seat in 2000, and was appointed Minister by then President Amani Abeid Karume of Zanzibar — making her as the only high-ranking woman minister in that cabinet.

She was elected to the National Assembly in a landslide win in 2010 as the MP representing Makunduchi constituency, marking her entry into national electoral politics.

In 2014, President Jakaya Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania appointed her minister of State for Union Matters for the office of the vice-president.

In the same year, she was also elected the vice-chairperson for the Constitutional Assembly — the body tasked with drafting the country’s new constitution.

In July 2015, the ruling party CCM’s presidential nominee, Magufuli chose her as his running mate ahead of the country’s 2015 general elections, which they won — making her the first female vice-president in the region since Uganda’s Specioza Naigaga Wandira who was in office from 1994 to 2003.

She is married to Hafidh Ameir — a retired agriculture officer — and together they have three sons and daughter, Mwanu Hafidh Ameir, who is the only one in the family who has followed in her political footsteps as a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives.