The National Assemblies from the five East African Community (EAC) member states will be locking horns in Arusha during the forthcoming annual Inter-parliamentary Games scheduled for December.
The Bureau of Speakers arrived at the decision to hold the said games in Arusha with the East African Legislative Assembly chosen to play host during their meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya.
This was due to challenges in the respective calendars of the other assemblies, according to the EAC secretariat report. Initially, it was anticipated that the Rwanda Parliament would host the Games.
However, the suggested dates of December 7-14, 2014 coincided with Rwanda’s National Consultative Dialogue, therefore rendering it impossible for the parliament to organise the Games. Last year the Inter-Parliamentary Games were held in Kampala, Uganda.
The Games usually bring together football and netball teams from the five National Assemblies, the regional East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and the East African Community secretariat who battle it out in a two-week extravaganza that also involves other activities such as debating.
During this year’s event legislators will be swopping their oratory and debating skills with fine deft moves and passes on the field of play.
The EAC and EALA mooted the idea of liaising with other parliaments through football back in 2001. Then, EALA hosted a special tournament to mark the occasion of its establishment in Arusha but it was not until November 2009 that EALA organised the initial Inter-Parliamentary football tournament.
EALA has continued to organise the Games as the co-ordinator and works closely with the hosting National Assembly to ensure successful tournaments.
The EAC Speakers Forum later agreed to have the Inter-Parliamentary Games held on an annual and rotational basis urging all National Assemblies and Parliaments to have a permanent budget line for the tournament. EALA has institutionalised the tournament in its calendar of activities.
The tournament currently features football and netball. The opportunity is also used to hold other activities in the social, intellectual and political fields.
Meanwhile, during their Nairobi meeting last week, the East African Bureau of Speakers further urged all partner states to remove all NTBs and called for the matter to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The Speakers thus urged the Assemblies to enhance their oversight role in ensuring the NTBs were removed if the objectives of the EAC are to be realised.
By MARC NKWAME, Tanzania Daily News
