The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is headed for a showdown with the EAC Council of Ministers and the Secretariat over approved a $104 million budget, $6 million more than the $97.6 million budget that was proposed in the Council’s Appropriation Bill for the 2020/2021 financial year.

The impasse stems from the revelations that EALA members’ sitting sessions were slashed by almost a half for this financial year leading to calls for their reinstatement. Rwanda’s minister for East African Affairs’ move to table a $97.6 million budget away from the originally agreed $104 million budget has rattled the region’s Parliament legislators.

The Council’s reduction translated into allocation to the Assembly of $16.7 million. The EALA committee reinstated its sittings with corresponding amounts increasing their allocation to $23.06 million, an addition of $6.3 million.

The budget for the East African body is already overstretched with allocations to the EAC Secretariat, EALA and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) claiming significant amounts. According to the budget estimates, the Council of Ministers made a unilateral decision to downsize the number of EALA Plenary Sessions from six to four and the number of plenary days for each session from 21 to 14. A development that has been viewed by the legislators of the regional body as an attempt to usurp the powers of the Assembly and make it a lame duck.  

A review of the budget estimates showed that, whereas the rest of the EAC organs and institutions had a six per cent reduction in their budgets or zero per cent increase, the budget of the Assembly was significantly reduced by 12 per cent- a move likely to handicap and undermine the Assembly from discharging its legislative, oversight and representation functions.

Sharp fault lines have emerged within the regional body with the potential to make its works stagger. EALA sitting allowances incurred between March and June amounting to $2.5 million are yet to be paid, an outstanding issue that has now put the house at loggerheads with the Council and Secretariat. It is increasingly becoming clear that the regional body is headed for difficult times if this stalemate is not resolved as soon as possible.