EAC now ponders cancelled meeting

What you need to know:

  • The meeting of the ministers responsible for EAC Affairs and Planning was to discuss the restructuring of the top positions at the regional organisation as directed by the regional leaders recently.

Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) secretariat is consulting partner states over a cancelled ministerial meeting which was to take place in Bujumbura over the weekend.

The meeting of the ministers responsible for EAC Affairs and Planning was to discuss the restructuring of the top positions at the regional organisation as directed by the regional leaders recently.

Also top on agenda was the status of contribution to the EAC Budget for 2017/18 financial year during which $110 million has been approved for expenditure.

However, the meeting set to take place at the Royal Palace Hotel in the Burundi capital was called off due to lack of quorum.

“The secretariat is consulting with the partner states on when to convene the ministerial session,” said a statement sent to newsrooms yesterday.

EAC officials could not be reached to explain why the ministers could not turn up but sources affirmed the representation to the session requires presence of the ministers from each partner state.

“When the meeting was convened at the ministerial level yesterday (Saturday) morning, it was realised that there were no ministers from some partner states, hence the call off,” the statement said.

The statement did not say which countries failed to send ministers to the 28th Meeting of the Sectoral Council of Ministers Responsible for EAC Affairs and Planning (SCMEACP).

The EAC partner states are Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan which, sources said, sent their senior officials to the meetings which preceded the ministerial session.

Key among items to be discussed was the restructuring at the EAC secretariat after the Heads of State directed during their last summit in February that there will be only two deputy secretaries down from four.

That means the criteria where each partner state has to produce one deputy SG, except the one whose national is the secretary general, will effectively come to an end.

The two deputy SGs shall be recruited competitively on rotational basis.

Under the EAC Treaty, a newly appointed deputy SG would serve for a three-year term, renewable once while the secretary general will serve a one term of five years.

Mr Liberat Mfumukeko from Burundi is the current SG while three other serving deputy SGs are Mr Steven Mlote (Tanzania), Mr Charles Njoroge (Kenya) and Mr Christophe Bazivamo from Rwanda.