Construction of the new state-of-the-art headquarters of the East African Community (EAC) will be completed by August this year, a senior EAC official has said.

The new EAC headquarters will have more than 250 offices, ample parking space, conference rooms, restaurants, a media centre, VIP rooms, banking and shopping facilities as well as an auditorium, with a capacity of about 100 people.

"Construction is steadily going on and by August this year, the complex will be complete,” Owora Richard Othieno, the EAC Principal Public Relations Officer, told The New Times yesterday.

The earthquake resistant structure is fully funded by the German government to the tune of 14 million Euros.

"At least 59 percent of the work that started in April 2010 is complete; construction work is going on round the clock,” Phil-Makini Kleruu, the officer in charge of the project, told journalists recently.

The Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) building has been shaken bytremors a number of times with the most recent seeing the evacuation of over twenty ministers after a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook the Ngorongoro block.

Once complete, the headquarters will save the EAC $500,000 rent it pays annually for its offices at the AICC.

AICC currently houses all organs of the community which include the secretariat, the East African Court of Justice, and the East African Legislative Assembly. It is also home to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

The foundation stone of the new complex was laid by the EAC Heads of State on November 20, 2009 during the EAC’s 10th anniversary.

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