Posted on January, 16, 2019 at 09:23 am
LEADERS from the six East African Community (EAC) partner states are due to meet here this month for the ordinary meeting of the Heads of State Summit.
Briefing journalists here yesterday, EAC Secretary General Ambassador Libérat Mfumukeko said all the member states have confirmed participation in the 20th meeting of the EAC Heads of State after it was postponed twice following Burundi’s boycott.
Though he wouldn’t disclose the actual date for the Summit, the Secretary General of the intergovernmental organisation of the six countries said the stage was set for the much awaited Summit.
“All partner states are willing to participate in the meeting, all the six countries are committed to move in the same direction as far as the political integration is concerned,” explained the EAC Secretary General.
The Secretary General’s assurance comes amid a series of postponement and rescheduling of the summit.
A similar summit failed to take place in November 30 last year after Burundi put a no-show to the meeting that was supposed to take place at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC).
Announcing the postponement of last year’s Summit, the chairman of the EAC Council of Ministers, Dr Kirunda Kivejinja said the decision was reached after the meeting fell short of the prerequisite quorum due to Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza’s failure to send a representative to the high level meeting.
The East African nation failed to offer any reason to their dodging of the meeting.
All countries sent their representatives to Arusha, save for the troubled country.
This compelled the Council of Ministers to reschedule the summit to December 27 last year which still failed to take place.
It was apparent that Burundi wouldn’t send their delegates to the meeting.
Last month the embattled Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza wrote to the Chairperson of the EAC Heads of State, Yoweri Museveni requesting for a ‘special regional’ summit to resolve what he termed as an ‘open conflict’ with neighbouring Rwanda.
In the December 4, 2018 dated letter, Bujumbura accused Kigali of being behind its crisis that started in April, 2015.
The letter to Uganda’s Ambassador to Burundi, Major General Matayo Kyaligonza requested the EAC Heads of State chaired by President Museveni to organise an extraordinary Summit to resolve the conflict with its neighbour.
But, speaking yesterday, Ambassador Mfumukeko quashed reports of ‘bad blood’ among some partner states.
He said all the EAC member states were working harmoniously in the integration spirit as envisioned in the treaty of the establishment of the community.
“There’s no misunderstanding as it is widely reported by a section of local and international media,” he said.
In the same vein, the Secretary General maintained that all member states were remitting their financial obligations to the secretariat.
Though he acknowledged that each country had its fair share of challenges, Ambassador Mfumukeko said each of the six member states were complying with their obligations.
“None of the countries have been late for two months in sending their contributions, if they weren’t contributing the Secretariat would have shut down,” said the Secretary General.
He however admitted that Burundi and South Sudan still had arrears that needed to be settled.
According to Ambassador Mfumukeko, each year the EAC Secretary General receives 80 per cent of all the contributions from the member states.
His assertion comes hardly a month after the Lawmakers at the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) raised flag on the pace of the contribution from some partner states.
The EALA members who converged in Arusha for the third meeting of the assembly’s second session, called on Partner States to duly remit their financial obligations to address the financial crisis that has hit the EAC Secretariat.
The legislators now want the six member states to start submitting their contributions in a ‘timely manner and fashion’ to resolve the dire financial crisis that has marred the economic bloc.
Source: Daily News