Regional lawmakers oppose move to trim their powers

Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have criticised a proposal seeking to bar any individual member from initiating a motion or introducing any bill in the House.The proposal was fronted during the 25th meeting of the Council of Ministers held in Bujumbura, in August, calling for the amendment of article 59 of the Treaty to remove the part that states that “subject to the rules of procedure of the assembly, any member may propose any motion or introduce any Bill in the assembly.” The treaty referred to is the one governing the establishment of the EAC that was assented to by all the five member states, and works as the guiding tool for the integration process. In a separate interview with The New Times, on Tuesday, members of EALA’s committee on general purpose who Tuesday ended Rwanda’s tour for their oversight activity on promotion of citizen’s involvement in the bloc’s integration process, expressed opposing views.Kessy Nderakindo, from Tanzania said: “First of all, we have a problem of interpreting what is written, in that article – the process of an individual member. What does it mean for an individual to bring up a bill? The individual is sent there (EALA) to represent the country. A bill should be approved by the partner state. That is the issue.”Abubakar Zein Abubakar, from Kenya, does not agree with Nderakindo. He insisted that all legislatures, in the world, have private members bills. “It is a common instrument in parliamentary practice. All parliaments in the world originate bills in two ways – government or private members bill,” Abubakar said.Abubakar added there is a constitutional theory on separation of powers, in the classical form of organising government; judiciary, executive and legislature.“They are interdependent but play distinctive roles. If you take away the capacity of members to generate private members bills, you are undermining this separation of powers. You will also be undermining the oversight role of MPs and you will be reducing the democratic space of the citizens,” Abubakar said, adding that the argument brought forward “to amend or tinker” with the article “doesn’t have sound reasons.”“When a private member introduces a bill, there is procedure, there are restrictions. You just can’t introduce any bill! The Speaker must be convinced that it is appropriate, before the House.” Meanwhile, the committee’s week-long tour in Kigali is about oversight activity on the promotion of citizen’s involvement in the bloc’s integration process.On Tuesday, the lawmakers met with Rwanda’s ministry of EAC and line officials. The objective of the exercise is to assess and critically analyse the level of promotion of involvement of EAC citizens in the integration process as evidenced through citizen awareness, participation and corresponding activities including any such projects carried out by the partner states.While briefing the MPs, Flavia Salafina, the Director of Information, Education, and Communication Unit in the Ministry, noted that integration issues are technical and not easily understood by citizens and, as such, the ministry still needs “more support” from EALA and the secretariat.Salafina said: “We also need to work hand in hand to have these protocols and programmes implemented as they should be.”She stressed the need to increase sensitization for the general public to know the benefits of integration.“We want people to know the benefits and we want them to exploit them.”Salafina said a survey is ongoing to establish the real figures on how many Rwandans have established businesses in partner states.

National

Regional lawmakers oppose move to trim their powers