KIGALI - As part of bolstering political federation in the East Africa Community (EAC), a regional peace and security strategy will soon be validated before implementation starts in each of the member states.

This was disclosed yesterday by Leonard Onyonyi, a Coordinator in the EAC Secretariat, during the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) session that is currently underway in Kigali.

Addressing the legislators, Onyonyi said the regional peace and security protocol is still pending, awaiting legal input before it can be adopted by the council that is scheduled to meet in May this year.

"Key on the on-going security programmes is the regional control of small arms and light weapons, through projects funded by German Development Corporation (GIZ) and the European Union,” Onyonyi said.

"Through this, over 170,000 arms and 300 tonnes of explosive remnants of war have been collected and destroyed in the region.”
He added that member states are required to harmonize their legislations with the Nairobi Protocol on small arms and light weapons to facilitate arms management.
 
Rwanda and Burundi have completed the process while the other partner states have advanced fairly.

"Equipment, such as arms markers and tracers have been given to partner states to enhance stockpile management and electronic record keeping for all state owned and licensed arms,” Onyonyi said.

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