Eala risks shutdown as impasse persists

Dar es Salaam. The East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) risks grinding to a halt unless someone at the top intervenes to resolve an impasse that has lasted six months.

The situation is compounded by the fact that the nations that elected the assembly’s members have no powers to discipline the lawmakers, The Citizen on Saturday has learnt.

Tanzania’s Parliament has admitted that it has no powers to recall its representatives, even as the Eala members continue to squabble. The admission comes just few days after Uganda’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) called on that country’s Parliament to recall its representatives, given that the regional MPs had strayed from their core business.

Eala has been unable to function in the past few months, with members preoccupied with a mission to oust Speaker Margaret Zziwa for allegedly failing to deliver.

In recent weeks, members have been unable to transact their business--first in Kigali and then in Nairobi--due to a tug-of-war over charges of misconduct and indiscipline targeting Tanzania’s Shyrose Bhanji, whom some members are keen to expel.

Activists across the region have raised the red flag, concerned that the impasse in Eala is stalling regional development.

In a recent interview, Tanzania’s director of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr John Joel, ruled out the possibility of Tanzania recalling or reprimanding its representatives in the regional parliament for the simple reason that the country has no powers to recall them.

He declined to go into the developments at Eala, saying Parliament does not interfere with regional activities and MPs’ conduct. Parliament only receives reports of what is agreed in the regional assembly. “I am not in a position to speak about what is going on in Eala because we only receive reports of what is agreed there,” Mr Joel added. “Contact the East African Co-operation ministry for details.”

The ministry officials were unavailable for comment. Tanzania’s representatives in Eala are divided over the move to oust Speaker Zziwa for alleged inappropriate application of rules and procedures and incompetence. Matters got more complicated recently from the Tanzanian perspective, when reports from Nairobi--where the assembly conducted its last sitting--claimed Ms Bhanji got into a scuffle with a fellow legislator from Tanzania, Dr Nderakindo Kessy.

Prior to the attack, Dr Kessy read out a resolution in which some MPs vowed to continue with their push to oust the Speaker and remove Ms Bhanji from the Eala Commission, allegedly for misconduct during a trip to Brussels, Belgium. Mr Adam Kimbisa, the chairman of the Tanzania Eala chapter, was unavailable for comment.

The minister for East African Cooperation, Mr Samuel Sitta, played down the matter, dismissing it as a minor issue that his deputy, Mr Abdullah Sadala, would take care of. Eala activities have been paralysed for more than six months as the Speaker battled MPs who wanted to move a motion to remove her from office.

But Eala finally approved a motion barring Ms Zziwa from presiding over its sessions and any functions of the office after the motion was successfully tabled before the House and adopted.

The matter was referred to the House Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges which will scrutinise and investigate the accusations against the Speaker and report back to members at a formal sitting within 21 days. This means the fate of the besieged Speaker will be decided in the next three weeks.