BY GASHEEGU MURAMILA

REGIONAL - The East African Community Students Union (EACSU) conference, the first of its kind in the region, will take place in Kigali next month.

The three-day meeting that will attract students from the now five East African countries will take place from September 14 – 16 at Amahoro national stadium. Rwanda was voted by student representatives from the four member states to serve as the permanent headquarters of the East African Students Union.

Rwanda and Burundi officially joined the founding EAC members; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in June this year.

The conference is likely to bring together over 200 delegates, with each country being represented by 50 students.

"It will all begin with a great trek that will have a big number of students from all the countries.

The venue was arrived at by different members of the union who attended a meeting in Kenya,” Steven Seka, a Rwandan representative in the union told The New Times yesterday. Seka also said that the conference will be used to bring in the open the East African Students magazine which will be launched by President Paul Kagame.

Late last month Rwanda and Uganda held the first ever students’ education exhibition at the School of Finance and Banking, and it focused on the role of education in transforming Africa. Rwanda and Burundi’s entry into the East African Community enlarged the community’s market to around 120 million people.

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