NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 5 – President William Ruto is currently in Parliament to officially open the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) special plenary sitting during the inaugural session of the 5th Assembly.
The 63-member state assembly will hold its sitting in the country for the next three weeks to consider reports by different committees.
The three-week session which ends on March 20th, will hold its debates under the chairmanship of the EALA speaker, Joseph Ntakirutimana.
Ntakirutimana who was speaking in Parliament Buildings told journalists it will be a full in-tray during the special sitting.
“We have different reports and Bills that we will be considering in our sessions here in the country which mainly involve oversight of different partner states,” he said.
The committee sittings, which began today will among other things consider seven reports touching on oversight of different partner states in areas surrounding transport and trade.
EALA plenary will also consider committee five reports on different bills aimed at addressing several challenges affecting the member states.
A petition filed by a Kenyan citizen on the conduct of the African Development Bank will also be scrutinized in the sittings.
According to its Rules and Procedures, EALA sessions are held on rotational basis in the five EAC partner states. At least two of the sittings out of the six held each year have to take place in Arusha, one of which is the budget session each May or June.
The last time Burundi hosted the sitting was in March 2015, shortly before the country was plunged into chaos after an announcement by President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek elections for the third term.
Currently, the EALA membership stands at 63 with 54 elected members from all the partners and eight ex-official members.
The ex-official members are the six Ministers from each state responsible for regional cooperation, where in the case of Kenya, CS Peninah Malonza is the representative.
The other two officials are the Secretary General of the EAC and the Counsel to the Community who are part of debates but do not participate in voting.
On the controversial regional conflict within EAC especially in Burundi and DRC, the leaders mentioned that critical steps have been initiated for conflict resolution.
“The Chair of the Head of Summit is undertaking steps amongst counties that have problem. We have talked to presidents in Rwanda’s, Burundi and DRC and we want this leaders to resolve this problems,” said Deng Kuol, Chair of Council of Minister.
EAC is a regional intergovernmental organization formed by Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi and is headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania.
The Treaty establishing the community was signed on November, 30, 1999 and entered into force on July , 7, 2000 following its ratification by the three original partner states – Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Rwanda and Burundi acceded to the treaty June,18, 2007 and became full member on July, 1, 2007.