Jakaya Kikwete

Jakaya the family man got married to her long time fiancé Salma Kikwete in 1989, although this was his second marriage. They were later blessed with 8 children including one that they adopted. The children are; Ridhiwani, Salama, Khalifa, Miraj, Ally, Khalfan, Rashid, MwanaAsha and Mohamed the adopted one.

The handsome and always jovial President has been seen to be very co-operative with other leaders of the East African Community. He has always offered his advice and assistance when need be. For instance, he helped in solving the Kenyan crisis that happened after the controversial 2007 general elections.

Together with his predecessor, H.E. Benjamin Mkapa, former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan and other leaders arbitrated between the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Raila Odinga and convinced them to form a grand coalition government

Kikwete was born on 7th October 1950, in Msoga, Bagamoyo, Tanzania formerly Tanganyika. Tanzania is along the East African shores of the Indian Ocean.

In 1959 he joined ‘Karatu Primary School’ in Tanzania and transferred for his middle school education to ‘Tengeru School’. He enrolled in ‘Kibaha Secondary School’ for his O-levels.

He remained at ‘Kibaha Secondary School’ for his advanced level education. He later joined the ‘University of Dar es Salaam’ where he graduated with a degree in economics.

This charismatic leader has moved from one position to another in various party ranks and from one working station to another during his political career. For instance, in 1977 when Zanzibar's ‘Afro-Shirazi Party’ (ASP) and TANU merged to form ‘Chama Cha Mapinduzi’ (CCM), he was taken to Zanzibar and assigned the duty of starting a new party administration and organization in the island.

In 1994, he became finance minister of Tanzania. He was later appointed ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation’. He remained in this position for a decade until he was elected President of the United Republic of Tanzania. He is till date the Tanzania’s longest serving foreign minister.

He has been deeply involved in the mission of rebuilding regional integration in East Africa popularly known as the ‘East African Community’. The community seeks to establish a political and economic union between Tanzania, South Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

He was also instrumental in the initiation of the ‘Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy’.

On 4 May 2005, he emerged the winner among 11 CCM candidates who were seeking the party's nomination to vie for Presidency, in the general elections. In the general elections that were held the same year, he was announced the winner by the Electoral Commission, he was sworn into office as the Fourth President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The President is embarking of fulfilling the ‘Tanzania’s Vision 2025’. This is the vision of moving the country from a low income country to a middle income country. There is also another model of fast-tracking the economic uplifting of the country that is dubbed the ‘Big Results Now’.

This model was borrowed from Malaysia and has also been a success in Nigeria and currently being implemented in Rwanda. The President when unveiling it said that the country will concentrate on exploiting the following areas for it to succeed; Mobilization of resources, Energy and natural gas, Water, Education, Transport and Agriculture.