Kenyan President William Ruto’s nominee for the Secretary-General of the East African Community (EAC), Veronica Nduva, will be sworn in on Friday, June 7, during the bloc’s Heads of State Summit, The EastAfrican reports.
When the regional leaders will convene, virtually, for the 23rd extra-ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State, Kenya’s nominee judge for the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) Zablon Muruka Mokua will also be appointed to the First Instance Division on the same day.
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The change of guard at the EAC Secretariat was triggered by the recall on March 8 of Peter Mathuki, who was besieged by legislators over accountability claims at the Secretariat.
Amid accusations of unauthorised expenditure by the regional legislative assembly, President Ruto recalled Mathuki and nominated him as Kenya’s ambassador to Russia. Kenya first nominated Caroline Mwende Mueke for the post but replaced her in a last-minute U-turn with Nduva, the Principal Secretary for Performance and Delivery Management in the Ministry of Public Service.
Financial woes
The summit is taking place at a time when the regional bloc is facing a critical cash crunch. Last month, the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) announced that it suspended its operations for June, having been hit by financial woes rising from delayed remittances from East African Community partner states.
In a statement issued on May 27, the Court said it "deeply regrets” to inform its esteemed stakeholders, particularly litigants and the general public, that there will be no scheduled session of the First Instance Division in June.
"Owing to delayed remittances from the partner states, the court was unable to conduct the May 2024 session of the Appellate Division, and the June 2024 session of the First Instance Division will not be convened as scheduled,” the statement read.
"This challenge significantly impedes the court's primary function, which is to promptly hear and adjudicate cases brought before it. Consequently, there has been a notable increase in the backlog of cases, with over 200 currently awaiting resolution before the EACJ.”
The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) – another regional organ which is also suffering from lack of funding – has in the past tried to push for countries that do not commit to their financial obligations to the bloc to be sanctioned.
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Many programmes of the bloc have stalled in the past few months due to the crisis blamed on non-remittance of dues amounting to about $40 million by partner States.
Only Kenya has up-to-date remittance records at the EAC, while Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda reportedly have relatively small balances. According to documents seen by The EastAfrican, it is reported, some $39,883,765 from the partner States was outstanding as at May 17, 2024. Since then, only Burundi has contributed $600,000 of its $12.7 million due.