East African Legislative Assembly

The East African Legislative assembly is the legislative arm of the East African Community

(EAC) and thus performs the legislative, liaising duties and facilitates a forum for debate

amongst the partner states. Because of the significance of its responsibilities it plays an important

part in the integration of the EAC, the legislative assembly was established under article 49 of

the EAC treaty and was initiated on 30th November 2001 with the founding members of the EAC

nominally Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The assembly also provided a forum for Civil Society

and other non-state entities within the region to advocate for the promotion of democracy, human

rights and other trans-boundary issues, it also made alliances with entities with similar objectives

both at the regional and international level. As a result of this outreach, the assembly participated

in the IPU, SADC, CPA, ECOWAS, PAP Sessions. These alliances enhanced collaboration and

cooperation regionally and internationally when the second assembly was held On July first 2007

the neighboring countries of Rwanda and Burundi joined in what was the second assembly

before South Sudan joined in April 2016 bringing the sum total to 6 countries participating in the

assembly.

Powers and Functions

When we look at the composition of the assembly according to article 50 (1) of the EAC treaty

every partner state shall elect 9 members for the assembly who shall not be part of the state’s

parliament (although must be qualified to hold the position), who shall represent as much as

possible the views of their own national assembly. While article 48 stipulates 8 ex officio

members from each state must be selected.

Article 49 legislates that the EALA is the legislative arm if the EAC and such has certain duties

that may be considered unique to it including:

  Making Legislation

 Monitoring the operations of the EAC

 Represent the interest of the member states

 Provide a forum for debate on policies

 Shall liaise with the National Assemblies of Partner States on matters relating to the

Community;

 Shall debate and approve the budget of the Community;

 Shall consider annual reports on the activities of the Community, annual audit reports of

the Audit Commission and any other reports referred to it by the Council;

 Shall discuss all matters pertaining to the Community and make recommendations to the

Council as it may deem necessary for the implementation of the Treaty

Apart from the above the EALA possess many powers that make the EAC unique amongst other

regional bodies as most lack a legislative function, whilst in contrast the EALA under the EAC

treaty has the normative function of allowing bills to either be introduced by the council or by

private members which has meant that up to date the EALA has passed 47 legislations. The laws

enacted are meant to supersede national laws Article, Article 8 (4). Community organs,

institutions and laws shall take precedence over similar national ones on matters pertaining to the

implementation of this Treaty. Article 126 (2) (b) of the EAC Treaty states that the Council of

Ministers establish a Sub-Committee to spearhead the process of harmonization and

approximation of national laws in the EAC context. This puts the legislative assembly in a rather

unique position as it can sway the partner states towards integration. Separately from this the

EALA may pass resolutions for use by other organs of the EAC and this may serve to function as

a subtle coercion on the other organs.

Contributions

As mentioned above the EALA’s greatest contribution to the EAC are the legislations that have

been passed in the assembly that specifically gear the region to integrate.

CASSAO Treaty: CASSOA is the nominal civil aviation authority for the East African

Community (EAC) established by Article 92 of the EAC treaty that seeks to have the partner

states adopt common policies for civil aviation. EALA in August 2009 passed the Civil Aviation

Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA) Bill the regional body that will streamline and

ensure that the highest international standards are maintained in the aviation industry. This bill

also further integrated state travel within the region making moving between the states much

simpler for the community members

Conflict Management Bill: A bill that was brought forth from the “causes of conflict” in Burundi

2008 which had brought together the partner states National Assemblies, Ministries of EAC,

defense and internal affairs, as well as Civil Society Organizations in a great demonstration of

integration

Omnibus bill: Although still awaiting assent from all the partner states the EALA is in motion to

pass this bill with the EAC being a common market this bill will harmonize national laws

appertaining to the Community to institute an administrative law for the Common Market

Protocol.
Hindrances

Representation: Because the EAC is built on the principle of equality rather than proportionality

each member state receives and equal amount of representation as stipulated in article 50 of the

EAC treaty, this creates an uncomfortable situation as the largest country in the region Tanzania

with a population of 59 million people receives the same amount of representation as Burundi

with 11 million people. This problem stems from the community viewing itself more as

nationalities rather than a community which hinders proper integration thus creating a clear rift

between the EAC and the East African people. Furthermore the members are not directly elected

by people but rather chosen by an electorate of whom the aspiring members must lobby

towardrather than the East African people’s themselves thus creating more of a disconnect.

Funding: One of the most fundamental issues afflicting the EALA is the funding and this can

partially be attributed to aforementioned point of representation, in the words of Hon Daniel

Fred Kidega “The contribution by Partner States which, stands at about 40% (actual 36.79%),

paints a less than positive picture of the direction necessary to drive the Community.” The matter

is so critical that the Assembly and a number of Institutions and Organs literally postponed or

reduced some of their activities last year. This can also be attributed every state being required to

contribute in the same proportion while some members economies may not match this demand.

The best example given would be the European Union where member states contribute according

to their Gross Domestic Product with the poorer states needing to contribute less. The

Netherlands pays the biggest proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP) a measure of the

amount produced in an economy in a year. In 2017, its contribution to the EU budget was 0.47%

of its GDP and in the same year the Netherlands was the highest net receiver of the EU budget,

perhaps a similar policy should be followed.

Usurpation of Powers: Recently there was a dispute between the council of ministers and the

EALA where powers given to the council usurp the powers of the EALA. Both the EALA and

the Council have powers to initiate bills for EAC legislation. The tension between these two

organs primarily occurred because the EALA initiated bills on matters under negotiation or

already opposed or agreed upon by the Council, hence reopening the concluded negotiations or

legislating on matters the Council deems outside the scope of the treaty. The main argument of

the EALA being that a separation of powers is required but EAC is not a state that such

parameters should be put in place. But withholding consent from the heads of state will only

further cause more of a rift.

Internal political insecurity: The countries of Burundi and Tanzania had a dispute about the

appointment of the 4th speaker of the EALA, the applicant of the a Burundi national contested the

election held on 19th December 2017 without the participation of the Burundi nor Tanzanian

representatives in violation of the fundamental Principles of the Community under Articles 6, 7

and 57 (1) and Rule 12 (1) of EALA Rules of Procedure. The court stated that under Part III of

the EALA Rules of Procedure, Rule 6 (9) (c) on the election of the Speaker, it is not mandatory

for every member to vote, hence the Members of Burundi and Tanzania had liberty not to vote.

But the case also seemed more conspired by certain members of Burundi and Tanzanian as the

applicant produced affidavits pertaining to evidence from the Burundi members of what

transpired during the trial which could only be ruled as Hearsay as none were in attendance. This

case demonstrates that the members representing their states could have internal political strife

further taking them apart from the goal of integration and sabotaging the assembly’s goals.

Overlapping Membership: This could be the most fundamental issue as the partner states also

have memberships to other regional blocs that they may deem to be more important than the
EAC to them which could lead them to ignore even orders and bills passed by the Legislative

assembly, this instance looks at the dispute between the council members and EALA, the council

may have interests that lie outside the EAC so some forms of legislature introduced to the by the

EALA to foster integration may be overturned as the partner states are still members of other

blocks that might be more economically and geo-politically expedient to them. If we take the

instance that Tanzania is a member of the Southern African Development Community which no

other member of the EAC is part of they may frustrate some legislature that requires more

commitment to the EAC than they see as expedient especially taking into account the SADC

region is more economically robust the EAC region.

Bibliography
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Bobi Odiko. (2011). EALA Passes Conflict Management Bill. Arusha: The East African Legislative
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Cherchi, A. (N/A). East African Legislative Assembly. International democracy watch.

Gastorn, K. (2015). The struggle for legislative powers. Völkerrechtsblog, 1.

Kovacevic, B. T. (2019). EU budget: Who pays most in and who gets most back? London: BBC News.

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fred-kidega-speaker-of-eala