Several members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on Tuesday walked out of a session in protest after Speaker Margaret Zziwa Nantongo ruled not to allow a motion on rotational sittings to proceed.

According to a source, the motion was brought on the floor of the House "in public interest” since it was not on the order paper.  

Article 31 of the Assembly’s rules of procedure allows for such a motion to be brought to the floor even if it was not on the order paper.

The source told this paper that the motion was immediately shot down by the Speaker who cited section 26 on procedures of putting forward motions and requested that it be tabled at a later stage.

In response, Kenya’s Peter Mathuki, who moved the motion, objected to the Speaker’s decision saying they would not consider anything else before the issue is sorted out.

The Speaker subsequently suspended the session for lack of a quorum.

"It’s in the best interest of the spirit of the (EAC) integration process to continue having these sittings on rotational basis,” Mathuki told The New Times yesterday.

The proposal to restrict sessions to the East African Community (EAC) headquarters in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha was recently floated by the EALA Speaker with view to cutting costs that are incurred as a result of holding sessions in the other partner states.