(Dar es Salaam) US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in Dar es Salaam described Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan as a “champion” of democracy, during the second of three legs of her visit to Africa.

Ms. Harris, the first woman and first person of color elected to the US Vice Presidency, spoke alongside Ms. Hassan, who in March 2021 became the first woman to lead Tanzania.

Samia Suluhu Hassan succeeded John Magufuli, who died suddenly, as vice-president.

She has recently struggled to break away from Magufuli’s authoritarian legacy and increased signs of openness.

The US Vice President said that during her visit to the East African country, she would talk to Ms. Hassan about democracy, calling her a “champion”, good governance, long-term economic growth term and the climate crisis.

“On the subject of economic growth, good governance provides the predictability, stability and rules that businesses need to invest,” Ms. Harris said.

“There is such potential for growth here,” she added.

Ms. Harris also laid a wreath at a memorial to the attack on the American embassy in Dar es Salaam, the country’s economic capital, attacked in 1998 at the same time as that of Nairobi.

These two almost simultaneous attacks, claimed by Al-Qaeda, left more than 200 dead and 5,000 injured.

Ms. Hassan, who celebrated the second anniversary of her coming to power on March 19, had raised some hope after a Magufuli presidency that led several international partners to turn their backs on Tanzania.

Tanzania held its first multiparty elections in 1995, all since won by Ms. Hassan’s ex-one-party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

In January, she announced the lifting of the ban – decreed by Mr. Magufuli – on political gatherings and paved the way for the return to the country of opposition figures such as Tundu Lissu and Godbless Lema, in exile for five years and two years respectively.

At the beginning of March, she had promised to relaunch the process of constitutional revision, old demands of the opposition.

On Wednesday in Accra, the US Vice President announced a more than $1 billion initiative for the economic empowerment of women on the continent.

In a speech, she identified three areas that Washington believes could benefit from more investment: women’s empowerment, the digital economy, and good governance and democracy.