{UAH} Eala Speaker voted out after long battle - National - thecitizen.co.tz
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Eala Speaker voted out after long battle - National
By Zephania Ubwani,The Citizen Reporter
Posted Thursday, December 18 2014 at 09:01
In Summary
Tanzania had the lowest turn-out of lawmakers during yesterday's session compared with others from the other four partner states in the bloc but that had very little significance on the process.
Arusha. Finally, Ms Margaret Nantongo Zziwa (pictured) has been ousted as Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) after a nine-month battle with fellow MPs.
The Ugandan socio-economist who was voted the third Speaker of the regional Parliament in June 2012 will now remain an ordinary legislator until the end of the third Eala in mid-2017.
The drama with which she was voted as Speaker two and a half years ago, during which the voting had to be repeated, was not there yesterday as nearly all members okayed her removal. Out of the 39 MPs who were in the House yesterday afternoon, 36 voted in favour of her ouster, two were against it, while one vote was declared spoilt. The Ugandan legislator, who has been an Eala MP since June 2007, was not in the House to witness her official ouster but told reporters earlier in the day at an Arusha hotel she would appeal in court against the move.
That is despite the East African Court of Justice's (EACJ) Tuesday dismissal of her application which sought to bar the House from convening yesterday to debate her removal.
She claimed that the Eala session which sealed her fate was illegal and violated the East African Community (EAC) Treaty which requires that the regional House should be presided only by the legally-elected Speaker and not the acting Speaker.
The overwhelming anti-Zziwa vote apparently followed the declining number of those who were on her side in the saga which had persisted since March this year when calls for her ouster first emerged.
One of Zziwa's staunch supporters in the crisis, Ms Shy-Rose Bhanji from Tanzania, was within Eala premises during the tabling of a report on investigations on the allegations against the Ugandan and subsequent vote, but she didn't enter the chamber to cast her vote. She alleged that the Eala Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges which recommended the removal of the Speaker with immediate effect was biased because eleven of its 15 members had signed a motion to oust her.
Tanzania had the lowest turn-out of lawmakers during yesterday's session compared with others from the other four partner states in the bloc but that had very little significance on the process.
Only five were in the House to vote while the absentees were: Mr Adam Kimbisa, the chair of the country's Eala chapter, Ms Maryam Ussi, Mr Makongoro Nyerere and Ms Shy-Rose Bhanji. Mr Makongoro was earlier seen in the Eala premises.
Rwanda and Burundi were represented by all their nine MPs each, while Kenya and Uganda had eight of their Eala lawmakers each during the extra-ordinary session convened to discuss the fate of the Speaker.
After the announcement of the results, the acting Speaker Chris Opoka-Okumu from Uganda said the post of Eala Speaker was now vacant—but only to Ugandan legislators.
"Effective now, the (Eala) Speaker has ceased to be the Speaker. The office of Speaker is now vacant," he said to the applause of the House, noting that Ugandans interested in the post should forward their names to the Clerk of the Assembly within 48 hours.
The Kenyan MP who tabled the motion to oust Ms Zziwa early this year, Mr Peter Mathuki, said he was humbled by the solidarity shown by the MPs all along. He said he had no personal vendetta against Ms Zziwa, but was looking at a wider picture of the East African integration vis a vis allegations levelled against her such as incompetence, intimidation and abuse of office.
"She was bestowed with heavy responsibility to steer the House on the desired path. I believed by the time I tabled the motion, she was no longer capable of leading the House business," he told The Citizen.
Ms Zziwa was elected Speaker on June 5th, 2012, becoming the third Speaker since the revival of the regional Assembly in 2001 and the first female Eala Speaker.
However, the voting that pitted her against Ms Dora Byamukama also from Uganda had to be repeated. Her predecessors were Abdulrahman Kinana from Tanzania (2002-2007) and Kenya's Abdirahin Haithar Abdi who served from 2007 to 2012.
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