Burundi to host next EALA session

The next plenary session of the East African Community (EAC)’s legislative arm – the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) – will convene in the Burundian capital Bujumbura in January 2013, EALA Speaker Margaret Zziwa told reporters after meeting Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza on Monday.After meeting the Burundian President at his office in Bujumbura, she told journalists that the EALA and the Heads of State summit are two organs of the EAC that “highly collaborate” in order to achieve the desired integration that is needed. Zziwa said she had come to congratulate the Burundian President and the Burundian people upon 50 years of their country’s independence celebrated on July 1. According to her, she had also come to congratulate Burundi upon five years completed after joining the EAC.“We acknowledge that Burundi brought a lot of initiatives and innovations that made the EAC more progressive than before,” said EALA Speaker Margaret Zziwa.The session to be held in January 2013 in Bujumbura was initially due to take place in November 2012 in Bujumbura, but has been postponed due to the official inauguration of the new headquarters of the EAC secretariat to be inaugurated on Nov. 28, 2012.Zziwa said, “We (the EALA) will also join the EAC Heads of State in the inauguration of the new headquarters.” Five east African countries including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda make up the East African Community (EAC) bloc.