Parliament back in business

KIGALI - Members of Parliament are expected to report back to work today in an extra-ordinary session that will see them voting a number of pending bills in the House. The extraordinary session is expected to last for one week and according to a communiqué from Parliament, some major bills are expected to be tabled in both the Lower Chamber and the Senate. “Both Chambers of Parliament finalized their third term of the year 2009 on December 4. The extraordinary session is aimed at finalizing pending bills before the year ends,” reads a parliamentary communiqué. In the Lower Chamber, MPs will revise the preamble documents of several bills that endorse financial grants for the improvement of social welfare and sanitation in different parts of the country. A bill on compensation of families of victims who lost their lives or property to stray animals from National Parks is also on the agenda. Under this bill the government plans to set up a special guarantee fund from which people will be compensated on the losses caused by wild animals. It will also demarcate the new boundaries of Akagera National Park. The Lower Chamber is also expected to finalise its extraordinary session by putting a final seal to the law governing the national police and the Penal Code. Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to begin its extraordinary session with a bill on the country’s entry into the Commonwealth agricultural agency and a bill on the international industrial standards. It will also endorse e the ratification of the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. The charter was adopted by the eighth summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union held in 2007. It seeks to entrench a political culture of change of power by holding regular, free, fair and transparent elections conducted by competent, independent and impartial national electoral bodies. The Senate is also expected to receive a report on several grievances raised by residents of Gikondo Sector, Kicukiro district, regarding the completion of Gacaca trials in their area. Ends