Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has appointed her daughter, Wanu Hafidh Ameir, as Deputy Minister for Education, Science and Technology and her son-in-law, Mohammed Omary Mchengerwa as Minister of Health in a sweeping new cabinet announced this week.
The appointments among the most eye-catching in the 27-member cabinet and 29 deputies – immediately ignited conversation across the country and the region with analysts split over whether Samia is strengthening her reform team or drifting toward a politically sensitive line of family-based governance.
Wanu, a lawyer and long-serving politician with experience in the Zanzibar House of Representatives, now takes charge of a vital ministry at a time when Tanzania faces pressure to improve learning outcomes, address teacher shortages and expand classrooms in rapidly growing urban centres.
Her husband, Mchengerwa, a seasoned CCM figure and MP for Rufiji, moves to the Health docket a portfolio that remains under public scrutiny due to demands for improved hospital services, medicine availability and health-sector financing.
Government insiders intimates that the President’s decision reflects an effort to “build a trusted inner circle” capable of driving her agenda as she begins a new term. But critics argue the move edges dangerously close to nepotism, a charge that could dent Samia’s reformist image.
Opposition voices and civil society figures have questioned the optics of placing two immediate family members in Cabinet, warning that such decisions could undermine public confidence in the appointment process.
“This is a delicate time,” one political analyst in Dar es Salaam noted. “Citizens want strong service delivery in education and health. Any underperformance here will not just be blamed on government it will be blamed on family politics.”
Despite the controversy, Samia retained several long-serving ministers and elevated other loyalists in what observers describe as a consolidation of her political base ahead of major national reforms.
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