Regional legislators and stakeholders are converging in Arusha next week to deliberate on strategies to transform societies and contain insecurities in the region. The two- day conference (May 23-24th 2014) dubbed the East African Societies and Regional Security is organized by the East African Legislative Assembly and the African Leadership Centre (ALC) in collaboration with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) and the GIZ East African Community program.
The Chair of the EALA Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution (RACR), Hon Abubakar Zein Abubakar and the Director of the African Leadership Centre, Dr. Fumi Olonisakin shall open the conference. In attendance are EALA members, EAC Secretariat officials, government officials of the Partner States, policy partners and representatives of the Civil Society Organisations. A total of eighty delegates are expected.
The conference is expected to analyse the emerging security priorities, needs and challenges in the region and discuss the feasibility of a new vision on regional security and sustainable and peaceful co-existence. It further anticipates the comprehension of the long-term transformations occurring within East African societies and the corresponding effects on regional security.
It hopes to build capacities of Parliamentarians not only to better legislate but also to influence security and peace building initiatives in the region through Parliamentary diplomacy.Among the areas to be addressed are the pressures of migration, persisting refugees and the IDP question, dilemma of citizenships as well as the ever-changing demographic profiles.
The conference is a follow-up to a previous conference held in Bujumbura, Burundi in 2008 that focused on obstacles to peace in the Great Lakes Region.
According to the organizers, East African Societies have transformed greatly since the transition to pluralist politics in the early to mid-1990s. More recently, such transformations have been enhanced by the renewed initiatives by Partner States towards providing a common framework for the building of an East African citizenry.
“The idea of peace and security that emanates from this framing assumes a homogenous citizenship dominated by or obedient to the state. It imagines security provision as the preserve of the state or Regional Economic Communities constituted by or around the mutual agreement of states”, a section of the concept paper states in part.
The conference takes place against a backdrop of increased insecurities with the Al-Shabab threat the greatest to peace and stability in the region. Mid- last year, a group of Islamist gunmen stormed the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67 people. The Al-Qaeda-group linked to the Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the Westgate attack, saying it was a warning to Kenya to pull its troops out of Somalia. In 2010, Al-Shabaab bombers killed at least 76 people in Kampala. Ugandan troops are also fighting as part of the AU force.
In preparation of the forthcoming conference, a media sensitization workshop was held in Nairobi yesterday. The workshop was called to sensitize the media on the importance of current peace and security conjuncture and to discuss the role of EALA and ALC in leading thinking and advocacy on regional security issues.
It further sought to identify the main challenges and the available opportunities media practitioners face in accessing, critically analysing and disseminating information on regional integration, peace building and security.
In his remarks, John Githongo, the CEO of Inuka ni Sisi Trust and a former Permanent Secretary of Governance and Ethics in the Republic of Kenya, reiterated that media needs to continue playing an effective role in shaping perceptions and advocacy in peace and security among other areas. He remarked that the political power of the media in the widest sense had grown exponentially in Kenya but lamented that commercial interests was beginning to take centre stage at the expense of public interest.
“In Kenya, the convergence between political and commercial interests in media is unprecedented with implications for all of us vis’a vis media freedom”, Mr. Githongo noted.
Other panelists included the Managing Editor, Saturday edition, Dennis Galava, Daniel Kalinaki, Managing Editor, regional content at the Nation Media Group and Uduak Amimo, journalist and anchor at the Royal Media Services. Hon Abubakar Zein Abubakar noted that the media by its very nature of its work was a key player in the process of regional integration.
“The media tracks, records and disseminates information and knowledge about transformations in society that are impacted by or have implications for security and peace building,” the legislator added.
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For more Information, contact:
Bobi Odiko,
Senior Public Relations Officer;
East African Legislative Assembly;
Tel: +255-27-2508240
Cell: +255 787 870945, +254-733-718036;
Email: bodiko@eachq.org
Web: https://www.eala.org Arusha, Tanzania
