Tanzania president kicks out foreign minister after UNGA

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania

President of Tanzania, Samia Hassan on Sunday October 2 made changes to her cabinet kicking out the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation, a few months after she reshuffled the cabinet in April.

New ministers taking oath

In the new changes announced in a statement by the Directorate of Presidential Communication signed by Director, Zuhura Yunus, Stergomena Tax has been appointed as new Minister for Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation, replacing Liberata Mulamula.

Prior to the new appointment Tax served as the Defence Minister, being the first woman to head the docket.

Innocent Bashungwa, who was the Minister of State in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government, has been moved to the Defence ministry docket taking over from Stergomena.

President Hassan also appointed Angela Kairuki to be a member of parliament and replace Bashungwa at President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government ministry.

During the swearing in of the new appointees early today, the president noted that the country has constitution to defend and laws and that all ministers should not overlap their authority boundaries.

“The second, is to know your authority boundaries; that this country has governing authority and that your ministerial authorities are limited. When you have to overlap your authorities boundaries, seek permission from upper authority.” She insisted.

The Directorate of Presidential Communication statement did not elaborate the reason for the reshuffle that saw Mulamula left in the cold, but the social media is awash with an image showing Mulamula flanked by US president, Joe Biden and his wife at White House.

The picture was first posted on ministry of foreign affairs' twitter page on 29th September 2022 with a caption: 

Tanzania's Foreign Minister @Amb_mulamula met with the US President @JoeBiden and the First Lady @JillBiden at a dinner reception hosted by the US President. @Amb_mulamula was in the United States attending the 77th United Nations General Assembly.

Mulamula attended the 77th United Nations General Assembly in company of Tanzania's Vice President, Philip Mpango, who had opportunity to address the gathering but not reported to have meeting US president.