Samia Suluhu Hassan: Tanzania's disputed president

Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as president behind closed doors on November 3, 2025. Her inauguration as president of Tanzania came as opposition leaders rejected the outcome of an election where they were excluded, and Samia Suluhu Hassan was named the winner with 98 per cent of the vote.

The election was marred by unrest that spilt over into neighbouring Kenya, an internet shutdown and reports of protest deaths.

President Samia and her ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party faced heavy international scrutiny.

Who is Samia Suluhu Hassan?

Samia assumed the presidency after the death of John Magufuli in 2021. She had been serving as his deputy. The new role made her both the first woman and the first person from semi-autonomous Zanzibar to lead Tanzania.

She joined the CCM party in the 1980s and entered politics in Zanzibar in the 1990s, serving its House of Representatives and as Minister for Youth Employment, Women, and Children, and later Minister for Tourism and Trade under Amani Karume, Zanzibar's president from 2000-2010.

Tanzania's president at the time, Jakaya Kikwete, reportedly cleared the way for Samia Suluhu to enter politics in mainland Tanzania, where she won more than 80 per cent of the vote in the race that got her to the National Assembly. She went on to serve as Minister of State for Union Affairs and was elected vice chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, which was tasked with drafting Tanzania's new constitution.

In 2015, Magufuli chose Samia Suluhu as his running mate, and the duo went on to lead the country.

Samia Suluhu initially praised

Samia Suluhu was widely regarded as a patriot and torchbearer for family values and women's empowerment when she came to the highest level of political power in east Africa.

Across the region and the world, women's groups and governments hailed the appointment of the veteran politician, mother of four and wife of a retired public servant.

Samia Suluhu won many hearts in Tanzania with her "4R" philosophy: reconciliation, resilience, reforms, and rebuilding.

"She started engaging key stakeholders and political parties. In that moment, political rallies and demonstrations were banned, she restored that. Some media, both mainstream media and online media, were banned, but she came and restored them," human rights expert William Maduhu told DW.

In a 2021 interview with DW, the leader of the opposition ACP Wazalendo party, Dorothy Semu, said: "We have seen her extending that olive branch and we think we are going to go to the discussion table and have a good discussion about the future of our country."

Maduhu said Samia Suluhu moved the country from first to fifth gear in a short space of time when it came to promoting national unity.

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Tanzania under Samia Suluhu drifting into authoritarianism

But in recent years, human rights groups and opposition figures began speaking out about what they said was Samia Suluhu drifting into authoritarianism. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch raised concerns about arbitrary arrests and a clampdown on the opposition.

Growing concerns over Tanzania under Samia's leadership turned to shock in the run-up to the October 2025 election, with the arrest and torture of Kenyan human rights activists.

Amnesty International said the government, under Samia's watch, had intensified its repression of dissent to entrench power. Since January 2024, Amnesty said, it had documented "widespread and systematic violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture, unlawful killings, and severe restrictions on freedoms of movement, expression, and peaceful assembly."

Amnesty said it believed the system of repression that existed in the Magufuli era "deteriorated further." As fear spread among journalists, civil society and human rights activists, criticism mounted against Samia on social media, where some users called her a dictator or referred to her as "Idi Amin mama."

"Suddenly, in one year, she just turned against all the things she started to create well. Even in diplomacy, her regime abducted several activists in Kenya," Federick Mbwambo Justine, a former parliamentary candidate for the centre-right Chadema party, told DW.

He believes Sania Suluhu Hassan's switch to authoritarianism could be due to ruling party politics.

"I think the CCM is stronger than her personality," Justine said. "The people she is surrounded by may have other objectives. When she entered the office, she thought she could make some reforms, and suddenly, the system may have told her this is not the way to go. And the system was stronger than her."

Some analysts have even suggested that she was forced to act against the opposition to prove to the CCM that she was a worthy presidential candidate.

Is there hope?

“The protests that occurred in areas, especially in the city of Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, and Songwe, were neither noble nor patriotic," Samia Suluhu said after the vote. "A true patriot builds the country; they do not destroy it."

Maduhu hopes that repression will "come to an end or at least reduce" during Samia Suluhu's first elected term. She has promised to force a truth and reconciliation commission to address grievances 100 days into her presidency.

Maduhu is skeptical about whether this could lead to results.

"Tanzania is good at forming commissions," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chadema party believes that constitutional and electoral reforms would mark the beginning of meaningful change in Tanzania.

"I can't say there is a 100% chance that will happen, but I think there is a lot of ignition for that to happen," Justine said.