Tanzania’s Vice President Quits, Says Samia Hassan Wants a Different Deputy

Tanzania’s Vice President, Emmanuel John Nchimbi, has resigned from office and announced his retirement from active politics and public service, in an unexpected leadership shake-up less than a year after he became President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s second-in-command.

Nchimbi submitted his resignation to Hassan on Tuesday, August 25, saying it would take effect on September 4, 2026. The President has accepted the request, according to the Tanzanian government, which said constitutional procedures for appointing a replacement would now begin.

The outgoing vice president did not give a conventional explanation for his departure. Instead, he pointed to a commitment he said he made to Hassan before the 2025 election: that he would step aside if she ever decided she needed another vice president.

“I am fully satisfied, without any doubt, that Her Excellency the President desires change,” Nchimbi said in his resignation statement, adding that he had therefore decided to honour his earlier promise.

That wording has immediately raised questions about what prompted the change, although the government has not said that Nchimbi was dismissed, nor has it publicly identified any disagreement between the two leaders as the reason for his resignation. Any claims of a political rift therefore remain speculation rather than an established explanation.

Nchimbi's exit comes after a series of developments that had placed him under growing political attention. In July, he publicly called on Tanzanians to push for a new constitution during an event organized by the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition in Dar es Salaam. He argued that the country needed a constitutional framework capable of strengthening rights, dignity and governance over the coming decades.

Those remarks reportedly drew criticism from some figures within the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which has its own established position and process on constitutional reform. The timing has fuelled speculation about whether Nchimbi's advocacy contributed to tensions within the political establishment. There is, however, no official statement linking his constitutional comments to his resignation.

His departure also follows a turbulent political period for Tanzania. Hassan won the October 2025 presidential election with nearly 98 per cent of the vote, according to official results, but the election was heavily criticized over the exclusion of major opposition figures and was followed by deadly unrest. A government-appointed inquiry later reported that at least 518 people were killed in the violence.

Nchimbi had been a senior figure within CCM long before joining the presidency. He previously served as the party's secretary-general and held several government positions, including ministerial roles and diplomatic assignments. Hassan selected him as her running mate for the 2025 election, and he was sworn in as vice president on November 3, 2025. His resignation therefore ends a vice-presidential tenure of only about 10 months.

The resignation also creates an important constitutional task for Hassan. Under Tanzania's constitutional framework, the President must appoint another vice president when the office becomes vacant, with the nominee requiring parliamentary approval before taking office. The process must be completed within the period prescribed by the Constitution after the vacancy occurs.

Attention will now turn to who Hassan chooses to replace Nchimbi. Because the vice president is the first constitutional successor to the presidency, the appointment is about more than filling a vacant government position. It can also provide clues about the direction of Hassan's administration, the balance of influence within CCM and the political calculations that may shape the years ahead.

Nchimbi's decision is therefore significant even without a publicly stated dispute. A vice president leaving voluntarily after less than a year, and saying only that the president wants a change, naturally leaves questions that Tanzania's government has yet to answer. What is clear is that Hassan is now preparing to choose a new deputy at a politically sensitive moment, while Nchimbi leaves behind a career that had taken him from senior party leadership to the country's second-highest office and, unexpectedly, back out again.