The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), the legislative arm of the now seven-member East African Community, will bring its plenary sessions to Kigali.

As announced by the regional House, the upcoming fifth session of the fourth Assembly will take place at the Parliament of Rwanda, from October 23 to November 5.

Due to disruptions including budget issues in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, regional lawmakers have not held a sitting in Kigali for nearly five years. Their last plenary sitting in Kigali was during the third EALA but, every year, various committee members have conducted oversight activities in Rwanda, as well as other partner states.

By press time, on Monday, October 17, the order paper specifying matters to be debated was not yet out. The EALA Commission, the Assembly's leading committee, will meet in the course of the week to set the agenda.

But some of the outstanding issues the fourth Assembly is likely to try and conclude before it’s term ends, in December, include the debate on the EAC sexual and reproductive health Bill.

In June, lawmakers embarked on the final leg of their consultations on the draft law which is meant to protect and facilitate the attainment of sexual and reproductive health and rights of people in the EAC.

Former Rwandan representative, Dr Odette Nyiramirimo, first introduced a similar Bill five years ago. But a revised version reintroduced the draft law in the Assembly in mid-2021 introduced by South Sudan MP Ayason Mukulia Kennedy.

Lawmakers and stakeholders such as Health Development Initiative (HDI), an independent non-profit organization based in Kigali, are pushing for the draft law to be passed and enacted as soon as possible, despite resistance from groups that claim that it is anti-life.

Another subject matter that could feature during EALA’s plenary sittings in Kigali is to do with three draft legislations: the EAC Financial Services Commission Bill, the EAC Surveillance Compliance and Enforcement Bill, and the EAC Standardisation, Accreditation and Conformity Assessment Bill.

The three remaining draft laws are among other legal instruments meant to pave the way for the establishment of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU).

The EAC Council of Ministers first tabled the three draft laws before the Assembly in March. In early October, lawmakers started public hearings, in their respective countries, to gather views that enrich the three draft laws.