{UAH} EALA’s plan to censure speaker fails - News - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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In the wake of the failure by some members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to censure their Speaker over alleged bias, questions over the regional parliament's cohesion have emerged.
The job of EALA Speaker Margaret Nantongo Zziwa was reported to be on the line last week as some members were said to working on a motion to have her removed from her position, citing her decision to veto rotational sittings of EALA in the five East African Community partner states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, as has been the custom since 2008.
Ms Zziwa is of the view that the regional parliament should hold most of its sessions in Arusha, the seat of the EAC.
This position is not shared by a section of the Assembly, which argues that restricting sessions to one country slows down the integration process. Last week, they used an EALA capacity building conference held in Mombasa to criticise the Speaker.
But Ugandan EALA representative Fred Mukasa Mbidde, who chaired the conference at the Mombasa Continental Resort from August 12-13, said this was a futile attempt because Ms Zziwa had the backing of the EALA Commission in ruling in favour of Arusha sittings.
"I killed it because it is immaterial," said Mr Mbidde. "Anyone who proposes censure of the Speaker of the Assembly on account of a decision taken by a substantive committee of the Assembly, such a person has a great sense of humour. You can only censure a leader for failure to perform her duty, which in this case does not arise."
Members of the regional parliament remain guarded on the sponsors of the censure motion, but The EastAfrican has learnt that at the heart of this tussle is a hangover from the time Ms Zziwa contested the Speaker's position last year, when she surprised the Kampala government's choice for the position, Dora Byamukama, and emerged winner.
Members of EALA who endorsed her surprise candidature and those who opposed her for the position have remained divided.
During discussions on papers that had been presented by various EALA committees at the conference, Ugandan representative Bernard Mulengani brought up the issue of rotational sessions and questioned the Speaker's grounds in keeping the assembly of the regional bloc in Arusha.
Ms Zziwa argues that moving the assembly around the region does not reflect integration; what EALA needs is equipment that relays proceedings of the assembly into partner states for EAC citizens to follow what their representatives are doing.
Rotational sessions of EALA were an innovation of the second assembly under Kenya's Abdirahin Abdi as Speaker between 2007 and 2012, while his predecessor, the Speaker of the pioneer assembly Abdulrahman Kinana of Tanzania (2001-2006) did not conduct a single session outside Arusha.
The only place mentioned in the EAC Treaty where EALA can sit is Arusha. Hence, partner states are excluded but not barred as venues for sessions, a discretion Mr Abdi exercised in moving the assembly around the region.
"For the past three years, our chambers at Arusha were empty because we were rotating around the region. And there were credibility questions over our representation," said Ugandan representative and EALA Commission member Nusura Tiperu.
"There were divergent views on this rotational sittings issue, but what are the functions of a regional parliament? They are research, legislation, assessment, publication and oversight.
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