Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have rooted for joint and coordinated regional approaches in efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, May 13, EALA members stated via a video conference chaired by the Speaker Martin Ngoga that such initiatives would complement existing measures currently in place in Partner States. During the meeting, lawmakers provided feedback on their recent activities in Partner States and apprised regional developments with regards to level of preparedness to combat COVID- 19. On Friday, Speaker Martin Ngoga told The New Times that since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic hit the region, “our Headquarters in Arusha have been put out of bounds for physical meetings.” He explained that as such, they continue working virtually with lawmakers “deployed in partner states to join hands with national mechanisms to combat the pandemic.” Ngoga added: “In addition, we have tried under the circumstances to continue working according to our calendar of activities and we are now headed to the Budgeting process. “Yesterday, members shared their findings and experiences of what has been done to combat the pandemic. The rallying call being to work together as a region.” According to an EALA statement, lawmakers noted that Partner States’ economies, like all others in the globe, took major hits. Lawmakers lauded EAC governments’ efforts to provide stimulus packages to ease the resulting economic challenges. Over the last three weeks, all the six Committees of the House have continued to convene virtually, in the respective EAC capitals to consider their various reports, prior to presenting tabling and subsequent debates at plenary. The EALA Commission, the leading House Committee, also held its statutory meeting online to consider and approve the activities of the Assembly for the month of May 2020. The Commission has resolved to continue with its planned activities through video conferencing in Arusha and in Partner States.
