When East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) member Judith Pareno (Kenya) left Nairobi for Kigali on October 19, she was fully set for an eventful two-week schedule.

For the second meeting of the third session of the third Assembly, she would be acting chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Wildlife; standing in for Isabelle Ndahayo (Burundi), who is recovering from illness.

On arrival, Perino picked Infinity Hotel, a new three-star hotel in Kimironko, for her comfort. Each Eala lawmaker is entitled to $400 per night. This is in addition to a daily sitting allowance of $160, to allow MPs to easily carry on with business, whenever they travel to regional capitals for the rotational sittings.

Business on the first Monday in Kigali included usual preliminaries including a press conference.

Actual business was to commence the next day, Tuesday. Her committee went through a report on water catchment areas, and approved it for presentation, to the plenary, later on Thursday.

Come Thursday, the report was presented to the House but debate was adjourned. Why? Over 13 members including members of the Commission and Chairpersons of Committees had a more pressing issue they wanted the House to address.

During an earlier five-day benchmarking visit to Brussels, MPs said, one of their own, Shy Rose Bhanji (Tanzania) publicised "gross misconduct” and demanded that the Assembly address that issue first.

Besides, early during week two, Perino adjourned the report on the EAC Co-operatives Bill, 2014, as she requested for adjournment so as to "prioritize” the amendment of House rules. A motion she introduced sought to adjourn other business in the House until the amendment of Rules of Procedures as a matter of priority.

She told the House that Article 60 of the Treaty [on Eala rules of procedure] stipulates that the Assembly may make, amend, add to, or revoke the rules governing the Assembly.

The motion further avers that the term of Commissioners of Eala ends on December 5, and that their election is neither provided for in the Administration of Eala Act nor in the rules of procedure.

The debate on amendments had earlier been interrupted on March 26.  Attempts to bring it back to the floor had been frustrated, MPs claim, by the Speaker Margaret Zziwa, who they have previously sought to impeach unsuccessfully.

A move by a majority 36 MPs to censure Zziwa failed to go through this year after the latter overruled it. They accused her of, among others, dictatorial tendencies, nepotism and favoritism, and intimidation of members and staff.

Nevertheless, Perino insists, the House did business that day, because members debated and agreed that the Assembly proceeds with the amendment of House rules.

Cheating East Africans?

For an Eala sitting such as the one in Kigali to happen, between $300,000 and $350,000 is foregone by regional tax payers for preparation and operation of such a sitting as funds come from the bloc’s budget.

Perino, a lawyer by profession, is firm that the lawmakers did not cheat East Africans by adjourning most ordinary plenary business. She insists that members put the interests of East Africans first by opting to debate matters of public importance first – leadership problem in the house as well as gross misconduct by a member.

Perino said: "I was elected to this Assembly to perform. We’ve been in this assembly for two and a half years and, this is the only time the assembly has been affected! And, it is normal for it to come up with such normal disciplinary procedures. We can’t say that we actually lost too much because we will also not allow gross misconduct of a member to go unnoticed”.

"We have worked in committees. The only thing I did not do was to proceed in terms of the debate because a motion was moved that we adjourn debate for purposes of discussing a matter of public importance. It is within our rules! That is business of our assembly”.