EAC to form a panel of eminent persons

Kampala - The East African Community (EAC) is planning to create a panel of eminent persons who will help solve political misunderstandings, a Senior EAC official has announced. According to the EAC Deputy Secretary General (Political Federation), Beatrice Kiraso, this will help avoid foreign mediation in times of conflict resolution. “We should be in charge of our social and economic agenda and not wait for someone from outside the region to come and help us solve our own problems… and that is why we are coming up with a panel of eminent persons,” she told reporters in Kampala yesterday. Kiraso added that the panel would constitute people in the calibre of; former Presidents, former high level politicians and former Chief Justices, who will be used as peace envoys and mediators. She called on political parties in East Africa to shift from being national to regional-based and focus on cooperation. “We should look at a time when a political party in Rwanda can closely work with another one in Kenya or Burundi in fielding a candidate for the presidency in the region,” Kiraso said. As part of efforts towards achieving cooperation among political parties in the region, Kiraso said that a political parties’ conference would be convened in September which will attract 156 parties from all partner states. “We want parties that look beyond borders and with this, it will be easy for them to actively carry out their role in peace building in the region,” the EAC official added. She said this would pave way for easy coordination at the regional level of what she described as, “Post election political dialogue,” to curb the culture of dismissing rightful election results and not conceding defeat. Ends

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EAC to form a panel of eminent persons