Muferihat Kamil Takes the House of Federation, Her Second Speakership

Muferihat Kamil was elected Speaker of the House of Federation for a five-year term on Monday, succeeding Agegnehu Teshager, who had led the upper chamber since 2021.

Desta Ledamo was elected Deputy Speaker, taking over from Zahara Umud. He was replaced as president of the Sidama Regional State last week.

A second chamber, a second speakership

Muferihat has run the ministries of Women's Affairs, Peace, and Labour & Skills. In 2018 she became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House of Peoples' Representatives. Monday's vote returns her to a speaker's chair, this time in the federal chamber that arbitrates between the regions and rules on constitutional questions.

Addis Fortune reported the election at a joint session of Parliament and the House of Federation, opened in the wake of the incumbent Prosperity Party forming a new government.

The same week, further down

The reshuffle did not stop at the federal chambers. In Dire Dawa, Kedir Juhar began last Friday as Mayor and ended it as deputy to the man who replaced him: the city council, opening a new term, voted unanimously to hand the office he had held since September 2021 to Abdullahi Aden Yusuf.

Read together, the two votes describe the same exercise. Offices changed hands across the federal and city tiers inside a week, in unanimous votes, as part of a single party-managed transition rather than a contest between candidates.

Why it matters to a business

The House of Federation is where disputes between regional and federal authority are settled — a question that reaches investors directly whenever a region issues a directive of its own, as Amhara's transport bureau did last week in declaring unlicensed app-based ride-hailing illegal. Who chairs that chamber for the next five years is not a ceremonial detail.

Open

No vote counts were published for either election; both were reported as unanimous. Agegnehu Teshager's next post has not been announced, nor has Zahara Umud's.

Sources: Addis Fortune, 5 October 2026, Addis Fortune, 5 October 2026, Fana Television, 5 October 2026, Birr Metrics, 5 October 2026