Eala Speaker Margaret Zziwa
In Summary
They were protesting the decision by Speaker
not to allow discussion on a motion on the rotation of sittings among
partner states
Arusha. Business at the East
African Legislative Assembly (Eala) came to a halt yesterday afternoon
after MPs from Rwanda led others in walking out of the august House.
The legislators were protesting the decision by
the Speaker to bar them from discussing a motion on the rotation of
sittings among partner states.
Outspoken Rwandan legislator Abdulkarim Harelimana
led the walkout shortly before 3.30pm after Speaker Margaret Nnatongo
Zziwa stopped Mr Peter Mathuki (Kenya) from tabling the motion which
sources said has divided the EAC law makers as well as the partner
states for sometime.
The debate on whether Eala sessions should
continue to rotate among the five capitals of the partner states has
been under scrutiny for sometime with the East African Community (EAC)
preferring Arusha as the permanent venue now that it has its new
headquarters with the purposely-built chambers for the regional
Parliament.
When Mr Mathuki rose to table the motion after the
House reconvened at 3pm, the Speaker turned him down, saying it was not
an appropriate time to debate the issue.
Even after being pressed further that it was a
point of procedure that the matter be debated in the House, Ms Zziwa
refused to allow the motion to be tabled.
The pleas by Ugandan legislator Dan Kadega and
others could not convince her to give a chance to the Order Paper to be
discussed in the august House.
This eventually led to the walk-out of the MPs who
were apparently dismayed by the way she was handling the matter. The
walk-out was led by Rwanda MPs with Mr Harelimana being the first to
march.
MPs from other countries followed shortly
afterwards, forcing the House to be adjourned briefly in order to give a
chance for the MPs and ex-officio members, including Eala
administrators and ministers from the partner states, to consult on the
matter.
When business resumed after 15 minutes, there were
only 15 MPs among the assembly’s 45 . An official of the EAC
secretariat said most of those who remained were MPs from Tanzania and
Burundi plus one or two from Kenya.
The Eala Commission, until recently known as the
Eala House Business Committee, has been meeting at the venue until the
press time to discuss the development.
The House will resume at 2:20pm today and it is
not known if the motion will be tabled. An Eala official added that
there was a likelihood the issue could generate more debate as some
partners are opposed to all its sessions in Arusha all the time.
source: The citizen
source: The citizen