Youth demand EAC observer status

NAIROBI - Youth in the East African Community (EAC) have requested the regional bloc to consider giving them an observer status, in order to fully participate in the integration process. Meeting under their umbrella association Africa Youth Trust (AYT), the youth made the request during roundtable discussions they had with members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya. “We really need to keenly follow all affairs and decisions taken by our leaders in the EAC because these directly affect us. This can only be possible if we are given observer status,” said Frank Ibambasi, the General Secretary of the Rwanda Youth Network (RYN). Observer status at the EAC means an autonomous body of the regional bloc can be allowed to fully participate in all deliberations made at different levels of the community. Some of the EAC bodies that have already got this status include the East African Law Society (EALS) and the East African Business Council (EABC). Hussein Hudu, a youth leader from Uganda cautioned the EAC not to give observer status that would only end at listening and looking at people debating. He suggested that the youth should also actively engage leaders in issues that can get them on board in the integration process and those that will generally uplift their livelihoods. The Counsel to the Community, Wilbert Kaahwa, assured the youth that they would be given a platform to participate in the deliberations, and called on them to quickly take up the role. The youth who constitute the largest population of the EAC, have lately not been fully involved in issues concerning integration. Many of them said that they still needed civic education in matters like the currently ongoing Common Market negotiations and the Political Federation. EALA Speaker, Abidrahin Haither Abdi, expressed the full support of the assembly to the creation and cultivation of an East African Youth Council that will then be given the mandate to devise an East African Youth Charter that will raise the concerns of the youth. Ends