His name has been circulating for several days in Ivory Coast. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Kandia Camara has just been elected president of the Senate on October 12, 2023. She is the first woman to head the parliamentary institution created five years ago. She thus becomes the fifth person in the Ivorian State. This new position confirms President Alassane Ouattara’s confidence in one of his most loyal allies.
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Kandia Kamissoko Camara, 64 years old, campaigned almost half of her life alongside Alassane Ouattara, current president of the Ivory Coast. Originally from the North, this native of Abidjan launched her professional career as an English teacher in the capital in the early 1990s.
She entered politics almost at the same time by joining the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), the former single formation within which she established herself as Secretary General of the Women’s Union, the women’s section of the PDCI.
Minister of National Education then Foreign Affairs
In 1994, she joined the Rally of Republicans (RDR) founded by PDCI dissidents, and which would very quickly be led by a certain Alassane Ouattara.
Twenty years later, while her mentor presided over the country, he appointed her Secretary General of the party. A surprise that makes her burst into tears.
Kandia Camara remained at the Ministry of National Education for ten years, where she suffered numerous criticisms for the lack of results in her department.
Renowned for her combative character and her direct words, the minister found herself at the center of some controversies, notably following the publication of a photo alongside her daughter who had just graduated from an American university, to the detriment of an Ivorian establishment. , and the appointment of her husband as director of the Economic Office of the Ivory Coast embassy in the United States.
In 2021, she was appointed head of Ivorian diplomacy, making her the first woman to reach such a level of responsibility.
Re-elected last September hands down (71% of the vote) to the town hall of Abobo, one of the largest municipalities in the country, she was therefore the sole candidate for the presidency of the Senate which she unsurprisingly won with 91 votes out of 97 voters.