The President of Tanzania, President John Pombe Magufuli is dead.
His death was announced by the Vice President, Samia Hassan Suluhu. He was aged 61 and is said to have died after an illness.
Suluhu said in a televised statement that Magufuli died from a complicated heart ailment at a hospital in Dar es Salam.
She has declared a 14-day national mourning and instructed that flags fly at half mast across the country.
There were speculations about the President’s state of health with many Daniels while many were sure he was incapacitated for weeks.
President John Pombe Magufuli’s last public appearance was on the 28th of February.
Samia Hassan Suluhu is set to become Tanzania’s first female president as she will sworn in any time soon.
The 5th President of Tanzania, John Pombe Mugufuli was sworn in on the 5th of February 2015.
He hit the ground running with “what appeared to be a genuine war on corruption” according to to Citizen TV, Kenya.
His fight against corruption earned him so many enemies at the time.
He is reported to have been a class teacher and later an Industrial Chemist before venturing into politics in 1995. Magufuli was the son of a peasant farmer.
The late President graduated from the Dar es Salamn University where he studied Chemistry and Mathematics.
He held several Ministerial appointments before winning the Presidential elections in 2015 under the CCM party.
Mugufuli’s reputation went southwards when he began cracking down on the opposition, under new laws and clamping down on the press. He closed down numerous media outlets.
The blow to his reputation, according to Citizen TV Kenya is his view on the killer Covid19. He played down on the global pandemic advising Tanzanians to embrace home remedy rather vaccines.
According to him, the vaccines “were dangerous and part of a global conspiracy.” He also made enemies with Kenya after he tightened Tanzania’s border with them.
The rift grew when his officials seized chickens and cattle found with Kenyan traders at his country’s borders and threatened to auction them.