East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) legislators on Tuesday expressed concern over increasing poverty levels among citizens in East Africa despite the region’s huge mineral potential.

The lawmakers were debating the budget estimates for the Financial Year 2013/2014, totalling $130 billion presented to them last week by Shem Bageine, the chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers and Uganda’s Minister of State for East African Affairs. 

"Our region is highly endowed with oil and gas and water but these don’t benefit our people and we wonder where our leaders are in all this,” Omar Kimbisa, an EALA member from Tanzania, said. 

"Who keeps taking our resources away from us yet our people are languishing in stinking poverty? Time has come for a new strategy in solving this problem and this should be our new agenda.” 

He called for local processing of minerals in the region, saying this will give employment to many unemployed East Africans. 

Budget weaknesses

EALA member from Rwanda Abdul Harelimana decried challenges in the region’s aviation industry and wondered why it’s shorter for one to travel from Kigali to Brussels than it is from Entebbe to Dar es Salaam. 

"We also need action taken on the high charges East Africans are incurring on roaming by regional telecommunication companies,” he said.

"There is need for regulation at regional level. Even when you don’t pick your phone or read messages, MTN, which is the same company in some partner states, charges you.” 

Christophe Bazivamo, an EALA member from Rwanda called for additional budget to the mining industry and the extractive industries. 

For Isabelle Ndahayo, an EALA member from Burundi, said the Budget presented last week fell short on agriculture, which she said is the backbone of all the economies in the region. 

In his Budget speech, Bageine said projects and programmes are being implemented at different stages, including development of a Food Security and Nutrition Policy.