A South Sudan’s lawmaker in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Dr Woda Jeremiah, has rejected the decision of the council of ministers to reduce the number of members of parliament from EAC partner states from nine to five.
According to the video shared by SSBC, Dr Woda rubbished the report and insisted that the number should be retained.
She argued that EALA had a backlog of work to clear, which needed even more representatives to be recruited.
“That issue involves the treaty because I don’t think the founders of this community just put in the number nine for nothing. When you are bringing in the members of the parliament, you have to consider the different parts of the community, ” Dr Woda said.
She further added that representation was crucial in an African setting where women, political parties and ethnicities should be represented for equality and fairness to be ensured.
“The work of the assembly is much. That’s why we think that it is a matter of the treaty and the community is increasing. We need even more members. Imagine reducing that number to five. How will you collect all the different aspects of society because you need a lot of representation,” she asked.
Dr Woda added that the fourteen days given to the legislators were not enough for the activities like committee work and plenary sessions given the backlog of work to be accomplished.
Budget gap
The East African Community Council of Ministers last month resolved to reduce the number of representatives from nine to five for each member state country.
The ministers cited a lack of budget in the EAC legislative body to account for them. This was decided during the twelfth meeting of the Sectoral Council of Ministers of Finance and Economic and Trade Affairs.
The report that was received by the council indicated that EALA had the highest number of sittings among all the regional parliamentary assemblies and, thus, was the most expensive to run.
The expenditure of the EAC from the contributions from the partner states was said to be 35.35 per cent, followed by the Secretariat at 35.16 per cent of the contributions, while the East Africa Court of Justice was listed as the least expensive body, with 7.06 per cent of the contributions.
The report also called for a reduction in the number of sittings of EALA to four per financial year to reduce costs.
“That proposal is misplaced because the composition of the assembly is a treaty matter,” said Rose Akol, a member of EALA from Uganda.
“One of the reasons they are jumping on the powers and the strength of the assembly is our role in terms of carrying out oversight in the community. So, we see this as a fight-back because the community’s funds have been misappropriated, ” said Paul Musamali, who is a lawmaker in the EALA from Uganda.
The EALA legislators disowned the report, claiming that the parliament was vital and was standing out among other regional blocs in the continent.
“The success is because the EAC (East African Community) has an organ that does checks and balances. It also boasts well-established organs and institutions. So, to us, that proposal is ill-advised, ” said Aden Abdikadir, an EALA member from Kenya.
“This assembly is a model on the continent. “Southern African Development Community (SADC) members were here on a fact-finding mission.”
The proposal
Each partner state is represented by nine members that make up the chapter and serve two terms, of which one term has only five years.
“EALA members are paid a monthly salary plus a sitting allowance. Instead, if they are seconded from Partner States National Assemblies, they will only earn a sitting allowance during the period they are required, as is the case in other RECS such as SADC and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), ” the report partly read.
EALA is believed to have the highest number of members from each partner state compared with the African Union (AU) Pan-African Parliament, SADC Parliamentary Forum, ECOWAS Parliament, Network of Parliamentarians of Central Africa and the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union.