Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) yesterday resolved the dispute over the venue of the regional parliament sessions, after amending an earlier provision.
East African Legislative Assembly
The EALA meetings will be spread to all five East African Community (EAC) member states, but Tanzania is going to be the host three times. Other EAC members are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
It was resolved that two sessions would be held at the EAC headquarters in Arusha and one in either Dodoma or Dar es Salaam, while the rest in Bujumbura, Kigali, Kampala and Nairobi. The EALA Commission had earlier provided that all sessions should be held in Arusha.
However, a Kenyan legislator Mr Peter Machuki, on Tuesday came up with a motion seeking the sessions to be spread to all EAC member states, a move that was widely supported by most countries.
The motion blocked for procedural reasons by the Speaker on Tuesday and half of the legislators opted to remain outside the chamber leading to adjournment for lack of quorum.
On Wednesday, Tanzanian MPs staged a walkout in protest of their colleagues who use the same style to force their motions through, a move that led to adjournment of the session.
Following increased tension on the dispute, the MPs called an informal meeting to deliberate on the matter to reach the compromise.
Presenting the amendments which were unanimously endorsed Mr Daniel Kidega (Uganda) commended the MPs for reaching a compromise, saying differences were common in democracy.
“People who think cannot always agree on everything, they will first disagree and after sorting out matters they agree and life goes,” he told the House.
“The dispute and wrangling have made us even more stronger today,” he declared. “Finally we have given the EAC its due respect by allocating two sittings,” Mr Abdallah Mwinyi said, hailing the compromise.
“It is a win – win situation because Tanzania has one more sitting,” he added. EALA holds seven meetings in a calendar year. The MPs later endorsed a bill that sought to make November 30, a public holiday. The EAC Treaty was signed on November 30, 1999.
The meeting ended on Thursday.
By JOHN KULEKANA, Tanzania Daily News
