Tanzania’s president Samia Suluhu on Tuesday thanked the leadership of Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) for nominating a female candidate to be the deputy president.
Speaking to women leaders in Dodoma, Suluhu underscored that were it not for the decision by CCM to have her deputize the late president John Magufuli, the country would still be yearning for a female at the presidency.
She, however, was quick to note that her rise to the presidency was necessitated by a leadership gap as the constitution states; further giving the strongest signal on her desire to run for the presidency in 2025.
Mrs. Suluhu asked women in the country to go for leadership positions while leveraging on their big number.
“I have nominated 12 female Permanent Secretaries out of the 26 that were sworn in the office recently,” announced Suluhu.
“This gives me hope that in the future, we shall achieve then 2/3 gender rule in leadership positions,” she added.
President Suluhu also observed that not many women in Tanzania are in formal employment, depicting the sorry state of affairs in a country where women have been for a long time considered caregivers.
Miles away from Tanzania, to Nairobi, Kenya where the Judicial Service Commission recently nominated a lady chief justice, the first one ever, to take over from David Maraga, who retired in January 2021.
Koome assumed office on Monday, 24 May 2021, effectively becoming the head of the Judiciary and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya.
In Kenya, several women have immersed themselves into elective politics, even as a majority are thanks to affirmative action as per the constitution.
Unlike Kenya, Tanzania has few notable women in leadership positions. Joyce Ndalichako is the country’s education minister as Tulia Ackson deputizes Job Tungai who is the Assembly Speaker, just to mention but a few.
Worth Noting is that Kenya is grappling with the implementation of the two-thirds (2/3) gender rule. In September 2020, former CJ David Maraga asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament over its failure to enact a law on gender balance. The president has never done as was asked.
