By Ritah Kemigisa
The East African Legislative Assembly is today expected to resume business by holding its Plenary Session in Kampala.
The Plenary which runs through to February 9, 2018, is the Second Meeting of the First Session of the Forth Assembly.
President Yoweri Museveni who is the Chair of the Summit of EAC Heads of State, is expected to deliver the State of EAC Address to the Assembly at a date yet to be communicated.
The State of EAC Address is an annual address delivered by the sitting EAC Summit Chair and it sets the momentum and push for the integration process by reflecting on general policies that relate to the Community’s progress while outlining the strategic challenges which require attention.
The Assembly which is to be presided by the Speaker Martin Ngoga, shall during the three-week period debate among other things three key Bills; the EAC Oaths Bill, 2017, the EAC Statistics Bureau Bill, 2017 and the EAC Monetary Institute Bill, 2017.
Also, expected to dominate the session of the House which sits in Kampala starting today, is Burundi’s continued refusal to recognize Rwanda’s Martin Ngoga as elected Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly.
Burundi’s minister in charge of East African Community Isabelle Nahayo, said last week that Bujumbura does not recognize the current Speaker because regulations governing the community were not respected.
Under the rotation system, Rwanda and Burundi were in line to take over speakership and according to Burundi’s president Pierre Nkurunziza, his country should have come first, based on the alphabetical order.
These divisions saw Burundi and Tanzania legislators boycott the election that saw Ngoga, a former prosecutor general of Rwanda, take the mantle from Uganda’s Dan Kidega.
