Tanzania’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan was on Friday sworn in as Tanzania president, becoming the first female head of state in the East African country following the death of president John Magufuli.
At exactly 10:15 am on Friday, Suluhu took the oath of office at State House Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She becomes the sixth president of the Republic of Tanzania.
Hassan, 61, was sworn in at State House in the country’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam. She assumes the presidency following Wednesday’s announcement of the death of Magufuli, after a more than a two-week absence from public life that drew speculation about his health.
The absence of Magufuli, Africa’s most vehement COVID-19 sceptic, since Feb. 27 had fuelled speculation about his health and sparked rumours he had contracted the disease, although officials had denied he was ill. Hassan said he had died of heart disease.
Described as a soft-spoken consensus -builder, Hassan will also be the country’s first president born in Zanzibar, the archipelago that forms part of the union of the Republic of Tanzania.
Her leadership style is seen as a potential contrast from Magufuli, a brash populist who earned the nickname ‘Bulldozer’ for muscling through policies and who drew criticism for his intolerance of dissent, which his government denied.
