Uganda picks new member for EALA
What you need to know:
- He takes over after the demise of Mathias Kassamba, a vocal legislator who passed away in April this year
Arusha.An experienced finance expert and member of the International Trade Council (ITC) is the new East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) from Uganda.
James Kakooza took over after the demise of Mathias Kasamba, a vocal legislator who passed away in April this year.
The new legislator was sworn in on Thursday during the on-going House sitting in Dar es Salaam.
As a member of ITC, an organ of WTO- New York,the certified public accountant (CPA), Mr. Kakooza will bring a long experience in the finance sector to the regional Assembly.
He has a long career having been
a member of Parliament in Uganda for over 20 years during which he served as a Budget Committee member and a State minister.
The new Eala MP was also a member of Pan African Parliament (PAP),a legislative organ of the African Union AU) based in South Africa.
Eala is the legislative organ of the East African Community (EAC).
It consists of members elected from outside the National Parliaments of the six partner states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.
However, each member state elects nine members to Eala through their respective National Assemblies.
Currently, there are a total of 54 elected MPs and eight non-elected members, the latter being the ministers responsible for EAC Affairs from each country and the EAC secretary general and the Counsel to the Community.
The tenure for all the elected members to Eala is five years, renewable once. The late Kassamba was elected into the Fourth Eala (2017-2022) in December and was to end his first term late 2022.
