Rt. Hon. Joseph Ntakarutimana from the Republic of Burundi has been elected as the new Speaker of the Fifth (5th) East Africa Parliamentary Assembly (EALA) that sat in Arusha Tanzania on Tuesday, 20th December 2022.
Ntakarutimana takes on the mantle from Rwanda’s Martin Ngoga who led the outgoing 4th Assembly after other contenders, Hon Dr. Leonardo Anne Otto and Hon. Gai Deng pulled out of the race.
The new Speaker took oath before the EALA’s new members from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He will be leading a house of 63 lawmakers from the initial 54 after the inclusion of DRC that has joined the Community states at the Assembly with 9 lawmakers.
The Speaker of the regional assembly is elected from the members of the house by fellow lawmakers, and serves a term of five years.
The regional lawmakers serve for a term of five years renewable once.
During the same sitting, EALA members also elected new representatives to serve in the respective Commissions for the next two and half years.
The East African Legislative Assembly is an organ of the East African Community, established under Article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.
The act establishing EALA was signed on 30th November 1999 and entered into force on 7th July 2000 by the Partner States.