The Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Hon. Abdirahin Haithar Abdi today deferred debate on the EAC Elections Bill, 2008 because the Committee on Legal, Rules, and Privileges had not completed its work of reviewing and giving expert opinion on the Bill. At the Third Meeting, Third Session of the Second East African Legislative Assembly currently sitting at the Chambers of the Parliament of Uganda in Kampala, the mover of the Bill, Hon. Dan W. Ogalo (Uganda) had presented the Bill to the Assembly for the second time.
While adjourning the debate to the next sitting of the Assembly due in April 2010 in Kigali, Rwanda, Hon. Abdi noted with concern that the Committee had taken almost two years to come up with a Report, which was bogging down progress on the Bill.
According to the mover of the private member’s Bill, Hon. Ogalo, the Bill seeks to make provisions to ensure the full, comprehensive and effective management of Presidential and National Assembly elections through an established model East African Electoral Commission that will manage free, fair and credible elections and processes incidental to the conduct of elections in the EAC region.
In 2008 the private member’s Bill was referred to the Legal, Rules and Privileges Committee for review and consideration.
In the Report read to the House by Hon. Abdullah Mwinyi (Tanzania) on behalf of the Chairperson of the Committee on Legal, Rules, and Privileges, Hon. Frederic Ngenzebuhoro (Burundi) noted that the Committee sent out letters to Stakeholders seeking responses, comments and proposals in accordance with Rule 67 of the Rules of Procedure and so far the Committee had received responses from the National Council of Churches in Kenya; Uganda Joint Christian Council; the Faculty of Law, University of Dar-es-Salaam; the Tanzania National Electoral Commission; the Government of Burundi; and the Parliament of the Republic of Rwanda.
He informed the House that a number of major stakeholders had not yet responded. The Electoral Commissions of all the Partner States except Tanzania had responded and the governments of United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Kenya and the Republic of Uganda had not yet responded.
He said the Committee was expecting views of the mentioned major stakeholders’ as well as from the EAC Council of Ministers. In that context, the Chairperson strongly recommended that more time be given to the Committee to receive comprehensive views from the major stakeholders before producing the final report.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers and Minister of the East African Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania, Hon. Dr. Diodorus Kamala continued to respond to questions raised by Members on a broad spectrum of EAC integration issues. While responding to a question raised by Hon. Dan Kidega (Uganda) on what the Council did to help the Partner States come up with a common position during the recently concluded Copenhagen climate change meeting, the Chair of the Council said the EAC Secretariat had organised climate change round table meetings on various dates from March to July 2009 in the five EAC Partner States to develop country positions.
The reports of the round tables were used to prepare an EAC Position on Climate Change. The ultimate goal of the EAC Position, which was approved by the EAC Ministers Responsible for Environment and Natural Resources on 12 November 2009, was to ensure that key issues relevant to East African Countries were reflected in Climate Change negotiations and were adequately reflected in the African Position taken to the 15th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 15) in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The Minister reiterated that a Declaration on Climate Change had also been developed, drawn from the EAC Position. The purpose of the Declaration was to commit the EAC Partner States to collaborate and harmonize their actions to address climate change in the region. The Ministerial Declaration was approved and signed by the Ministers Responsible for Environment and Natural Resources on 12 November 2009.
He noted that the East African Community recognises that every major social, economic and environmental sector was sensitive to climate variability and change, both of which were significant factors in each sector's sustainable development.
The East African Community was also cognizant of the changing climate and the need to put in place measures geared towards adaptation as well as mitigation of its adverse effects. To this effect, the Community encourages development and implementation of national as well as regional adaptation plans of action.
Furthermore, the Minister informed the House that the East African Community also recognises the need for vulnerability assessment, adaptation planning, and capacity building, in terms of training, institutional strengthening and planning. Experience suggests that the best way to address climate change impacts on the poor was by integrating adaptation responses into development planning. This was fundamental to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He added that efforts in East Africa should be geared into harmonising adaptation strategies and developing strategies which can be implemented at regional level. It, therefore, becomes necessary for East Africa to assess and document vulnerabilities due to climate change and to design adaptation and mitigation measures in order to ameliorate the effects of climate change.
The EAC position with regard to the Climate Change negotiation has been aligned to the five pillars of the Bali Plan of Action namely; adaptation, mitigation, technology development and transfer, capacity building and financing, noted the Chairperson of the Council.
