Author: IGIHE

{It is now official that the standoff between Jubilee and the opposition over the names of nominees to the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) will only be sorted out in the next Parliament.}

This means that operations of the regional assembly are likely to remain paralysed after Kenya’s Parliament adjourned sine die on Thursday without electing law-makers to the regional legislative body.

{{4 Names }}

The opposition has remained adamant that it will not add any additional names to the earlier four it had submitted.

Jubilee has also maintained that the opposition must add seven additional names to the four in order for the House to elect four to Eala.

The grandstanding is likely to persist even in the 12th Parliament.

“Nothing will happen in this Parliament over the nominees, wait for the 12th Parliament,” Kitutu Masaba MP, Timothy Bosire told the Nation.

“Jubilee cannot dictate to us who to nominate to Eala, we will not dance to the tune of the music they are playing,” said Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati.

{{‘No law’}}

National Assembly Minority Whip Thomas Mwadeghu also maintained that there is no law compelling them to add additional names to the earlier list.

“Cite to me any law demanding that we have to give seven additional names. We will not add anyone to our list,” Mwadeghu said.

“We are within the law to present the four names and we will not add any name.”

The move comes after the joint parliamentary select committee on the nomination of Eala recommended that Rule 6 of the Assembly be deleted to make sure each party nominates for election three times the original figure.

In the report, the committee co-chaired by Katoo ole Metito and Kipchumba Murkomen said the amendment would help to remove conflicts of interpretation in the number of nominees from each party.

{{Sittings }}

Following the move, the committee recommended that National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and his Senate counterpart Ekwee Ethuro extend timelines for processes required to facilitate the holding of the elections.

Cord has nominated Judith Pareno, Ronald Ngeny, Abubakar Zein and Kennedy Musyoka.

Eala Speaker Kenneth Madete had earlier written to all member states stating that that the sittings of the assembly has been suspended until Kenya elect its nominees.

“As you may be aware, the Parliament of Kenya is still in the process of electing its members,” reads part letter.

“Due to the foregoing we are unable to proceed with the activities related to the inauguration of the 4th Assembly, this is therefore to notify you that the first sitting of the assembly is hereby suspended until further notice.”

Source:Daily Nation

{The tale of the new nominees to the fourth East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has taken a new twist, as South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) revokes its resolution confirming nine members to the august House.}

This action comes as the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) was getting ready to hear inter-parties an application filed by Mr Wani Santino Jada, asserting that the act of President Salva Kiir who appointed, by decree, nine persons to represent the partner-state in EALA was in violation of Article 50 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC).

Mr Jada, a 22-year-old citizen of the Republic of South Sudan, had earlier obtained an ex-parte order from EACJ, restraining administering the oath of office, or otherwise recognizing nominees from the Republic of South Sudan pending the hearing yesterday.

Before a panel of judges, under EACJ Principal Judge, Monica Mugenyi, the first two respondents, Attorney General of the Republic of South Sudan, and the Speaker of the Parliament of South Sudan admitted that the appointment and consequent confirmation violated Article 50 of the EAC establishment Treaty.

The South Sudan Justice Minister, Mr James Mayena Oka and Clerk of South Sudan Transitional National Legislative Assembly, Alalla Younis Said told the Court that having learnt of the violation fact, the South Sudan TNLA revoked the approval of the nine nominees and that new elections would have to be held, at least by next week, to meet requirements of Article 50.

On the bench, there were also the EACJ Deputy Principal Judge, Isaac Lenaola and judges Faustin Ntezilyayo, Fakihi Jundu and Audace Ngiye. After the Court was notified of changes in the current state of affairs in regards to the appointments and approval, Mr Jada withdrew his application as it was likely to be rendered an academic exercise.

The respondents conceded that the President of South Sudan has no mandate to appoint EALA members. They also produced a letter revoking the appointments signed by the speaker of the Parliament.

Consequently a consent was filed to the effect that the appointed members of EALA from South Sudan is revoked and that it would prepare the election rules to comply with Article 50 of the Treaty and that they will repeat the exercise after approving their election rules. The third respondent was EAC Secretary General.

Reports reaching the ‘Daily News’ here had it that the South Sudan MPs supported a motion raised by Chairperson of Legislation and Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Dengtiel Ayuen Kur, who formed an opinion that it would be just to withdraw the parliamentary approval of the nine members who were confirmed by the assembly in March this year.

Mr Kur was quoted as saying in TNLA that although South Sudan sent its members to the Assembly, it had turned out that some basic requirements of the Treaty were not met.

Source:Daily News

{One person was killed and nine others wounded when a grenade exploded in Bujumbura, in a neighbourhood of the capital known as an opposition bastion, the city’s mayor said Thursday.}

“A grenade was thrown and exploded among a group of people who were having a beer near the bus station in Musaga,” Freddy Mbonimpa told AFP of the incident which occurred on Wednesday evening.

Witnesses said many police officers went to the scene with some seen firing their weapons.

“Those were warning shots fired into the air,” the mayor said, adding police had opened an investigation “to find the criminals behind this attack”.

Musaga, in the south of the city, is a bastion of opposition where protests erupted two years ago over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a disputed third term in office, which he went on to win.

{{Failed coup }}

The demonstrations swelled into a major crisis which even saw a failed coup attempt. Since then, Musaga has seen regular anti-government protests.

The unrest has claimed between 500 and 2,000 lives and more than 400,000 Burundians have been forced into exile, rights groups and the UN say, while there have been reports of hundreds of cases of torture and forced disappearances.

Last month, three members of the youth league of Burundi’s ruling party — considered a militia by the UN — were killed in a grenade attack in the same neighbourhood.

The “Imbonerakure”, whose name means “The Watchmen”, has long been accused of using barbaric methods to achieve political ends on behalf of Nkurunziza and his ruling CNDD-FDD party.

Four days later eight people were hurt in a grenade explosion in a northern Bujumbura neighbourhood considered a CNDD-FDD stronghold — the scene of a string of similar attacks that have left two people dead and around 20 injured in less than a month.

Source:AFP

{The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday two staff kidnapped when armed men attacked their convoy in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week had been released.}

The workers were abducted on June 7 between Kirumba and Beni in North Kivu province while on a humanitarian mission, prompting a Red Cross appeal for their immediate release.

A Red Cross statement said the pair were freed on Thursday morning.

Spokesperson Christine Cipolla said the organisation was relieved their ordeal was over but deplored an abduction she said threatened humanitarian work.

An ICRC spokesperson told AFP its operations remained suspended in the region, where it has been aiding 5 000 families, following the abduction of the two, whose nationality has not been revealed.

“We have suspended our movements in North Kivu province until further notice … awaiting security guarantees,” the spokesperson said.

The eastern DRC has been rocked by more than 20 years of armed conflict among both domestic and foreign armed groups, fuelled by struggle for control of lucrative mineral resources as well as ethnic and property disputes.

North Kivu has served as a base for rebels fighting with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) since 1994 and sees frequent kidnappings.

Source:AFP