Samia Suluhu Hassan

President of Tanzania since 2021

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Born 1960 · age 66

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Wikipedia
72 languages
Cross-language footprint
Age
66
Born 1960
Awards
6
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-09-09

She took office as Tanzania's first woman president in 2021 after her predecessor died, initially signaling reform — reversing COVID denial, courting investors. By 2025 she'd banned the main opposition, jailed its leader for treason, and presided over an election marked by violence and fraud. Scholars now track the slide toward authoritarianism.

Biography

About

Born in Zanzibar on 27 January 1960, Suluhu Hassan spent a decade as a minister in the semi-autonomous region before entering parliament in 2010 and serving as Minister of State for Union Affairs. She became Tanzania's first female vice-president in 2015, running on the Chama Cha Mapinduzi ticket with John Magufuli, and the pair won re-election in 2020. When Magufuli died on 19 March 2021, she ascended to the presidency and quickly pivoted from his COVID denialism, implementing pandemic controls and pushing infrastructure expansion and foreign investment. But the early reformist sheen faded: i…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Samia Suluhu Hassan

Samia Suluhu Hassan

said2025

The level of vaccine inequity that we see is appalling.

— Africa’s critical minerals poised to power global green energy transition Africa Renewal (2025)

Samia Suluhu Hassan

said2025

After the onset of the pandemic, we in Tanzania, and I believe in many other developing countries, were stuck in the twilight of protecting lives and livelihoods.

— Africa’s critical minerals poised to power global green energy transition Africa Renewal (2025)

Samia Suluhu Hassan

said23 May 2022

the burden of expectation to deliver gender equality is heavier on my shoulders.

— The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 TIME (May 23, 2022)

Samia Suluhu Hassan

said28 Jun 2021

A woman is like a tea bag; you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water

— 100 days of Samia: Her moves usher in new era of bipartisan politics, growth The East African ( June 28, 2021)

Samia Suluhu Hassan

said6 May 2021

God has blessed these two countries to be neighbours. We have land and sea borders. And even our ecology is one. Even our animals are family and neighbours.

— Tanzanian Samia Suluhu Hassan's five quotes which charmed Kenya BBC NEWS (6 May 2021)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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