Aligning national laws to EAC at advanced stage - Minister

KIGALI - The review of the national laws as part of the process to operationalise the EAC Common Market Protocol has reached the advantage stage, the Minister of EAC affairs, Monique Mukaruliza, has said. The review of legislations is on going in the EAC partner states where in Kenya the report of the Task Force on Review of Domestic Laws had been submitted to the Attorney General for further action. In Tanzania and Uganda, similar task forces are at advanced stages of reviewing and making consultations on how they can be aligned to the regional grouping. “In Rwanda, we are currently done with the consultation and we will soon table the draft documents before cabinet,” Mukaruliza said. She added that, they identified laws and policies to be amended and aligned to the provisions within the Common market Protocol, which went into force mid last year. The process of approximation and harmonization of laws is aimed at enacting a common legislation for the Community on the implementation of the Common Market, which will take precedence over similar national laws in related matters. Recently the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) members urged that the EAC Common Market would thrive in a regime of approximated and harmonized policies, laws and systems but noted that the pace of the harmonization processes in areas such as education, internal taxes and cross-border systems, among others, was less than adequate. The EAC Secretariat commissioned a study aimed at identifying and reviewing the commercial laws in the Partner States that had direct impact on the Common Market and drafting of necessary EAC legislation in the identified priority areas to be enacted by EALA. Ends

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Aligning national laws to EAC at advanced stage - Minister