Tanzania: MPs Elect First Woman Speaker

By Eric Sande

Ms Anne Makinda, 61, heads to the books of history as the first lady in Tanzania to sit as a National Assembly Speaker. Tanzania becomes the fifth country to have a female speaker after Rwanda, Mozambique, Botswana and Ghana, in mostly male-dominated august Houses. The newly-elected MPs unanimously voted Ms Makinda from Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) into office with a total of 265 votes against opposition candidate and prominent advocate, Mr Mabere Marando, who managed 53 votes, handing her an unequivocal mandate to take over from the out going speaker Mr Samuel Sitta.

She was declared speaker by the clerk to the National Assembly, Dr Thomas Kashililah.

“I will be politically impartial and I believe that it is the obligation of the speaker of the National Assembly to be so,” Makinda told Parliament after the declaration.

Between 1945 to 1997, only 42 of the 186 states with a legislative institution have at one time or another selected a woman to preside over parliamentary affairs. They included 18 European countries, 19 in the Americas, three in Africa, one in Asia and one country in the Pacific.

President Jakaya Kikwete, who has been damned for the slow pace of reform in the fight against corruption, pledged cooperation with Makinda in a congratulatory message.

“It’s an honour for Chama Cha Mapinduzi, you have inspired women and given them the spirit and enthusiasm to work efficiently and professionally in their efforts to assume different decision-making positions,” he told Reuters.