Rwandan EALA MPs Walkout in Protest

{{Rwandan MPs at the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) on August 26 walked-out of the Regional Parliament protesting against the manner in which the House speaker handled the issue on rotation of sittings among partner states.}}

Rwandan legislator Abdulkarim Harelimana led the walkout after EALA Speaker Margaret Nnantongo Zziwa stopped Mr Peter Mathuki (Kenya) from tabling the motion.

The East African Community (EAC) prefers Arusha as the permanent venue for EALA sessions now that it has its new headquarters with the purposely-built chambers for the regional Parliament.

However, the debate on whether Eala sessions should continue to rotate among the five capitals of the partner states has been under scrutiny for sometime.

The Speaker stopped Mr. Mathuki when he rose to table the issue and told him it was not an appropriate time to debate the issue.

This eventually led to the walk-out of the MPs who were apparently dismayed by the way she was handling the matter. The walk-out was led by Rwanda MPs with Mr Harelimana being the first to march.

The House was forced to adjourn after MPs from other countries walkedout shortly afterwards.

Later when business resumed after 15 minutes, there were only 15 MPs among the assembly’s 45. Most of those who remained were MPs from Tanzania and Burundi plus one or two from Kenya.

{additional reporting: Wire}