East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, Friday, 23rd October, 2020: The East African Community and the French Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU was signed at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania by the EAC Secretary General Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko and the Ambassador of France to Tanzania accredited at EAC, H.E. Frédéric Clavier.
The objective of the MoU is to establish a framework of cooperation and facilitate the Parties’ strategic partnership to draw on expertise and support collaborative initiatives to sustain the EAC Integration Agenda. Highlighted in the five (5) year MoU are the key priority areas of cooperation that the two parties seek to explore. These include Energy, Climate Change and Biodiversity, Industry, Private Sector Development and Investment Promotion, Customs and Trade, Financial Sector, and Capacity Building and Project Development. For the purpose of concretizing cooperation in the earmarked sectors, the Government of France will mobilize different actors and instruments.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 22nd October, 2020:The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched the first Continental Strategy on Migration for Africa for the period 2020-2024. The Strategy provides an excellent opportunity to further develop synergies for more robust migration dialogues and outcomes across regions and with all relevant partners.
The IOM’s Continental Strategy was conceived to reinforce commitment towards safe, orderly and regular migration within and outside the African continent. Through multi-stakeholder engagement, it is expected to give impetus for adaptive measures for better migration management and scale up the positive impacts, opportunities and benefits of migration for the whole of society.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 15th October, 2020: As part of the International Rural Women’s Day celebration, on 15th October 2020; the Rwandan government in partnership with the East African Community launched the 50 Million African Women Speak Project Networking Platform in Musanze, Northern Rwanda.
The online platform is intended to support women empowerment initiatives by providing African Women Entrepreneurs with access to critical information on financial and non-financial services as well as provide opportunities for business networks among African Women Entrepreneurs.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 16th October, 2020: The EAC Election Observer Mission is due for deployment in Tanzania, effective Friday 23rd October, 2020. The Mission will arrive in Dar es salaam on Friday 23rd October 2020 and will observe the General Elections slated for 28th October, 2020.
The deployment of EAC Election Observer Mission is a mandate under the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC and pursuant to the invitation of the National Electoral Commission of Tanzania (NEC), as well as the decision of the Council of Ministers on observation of elections in the EAC Partner States. The Mission’s mandate is to observe the overall electoral environment, pre-election activities, the polling day, the counting and tallying/announcement of results.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, Wednesday, 7th October, 2020: The EU Ambassador to Tanzania and the East African Community, Manfredo Fanti and the Secretary General of the EAC, H.E. Libérat Mfumukeko, today launched a new EUR 16,400,000 (approx. 43.87 billion TZS) joint programme to strengthen regional economic integration, through advancing implementation of the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols.
In particular, the Common Objectives in Regional Economic Integration (CORE) programme will be instrumental in moving towards a fully-fledged Customs Union, by supporting more robust information, communication and technology (ICT) based data exchange protocols for the clearing of goods. Thanks to digital solutions, customs operations will be simpler, quicker, as well as safer during this pandemic situation thereby resulting in a reduction of the costs of cross-border trade.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 7 October, 2020: While October to December is normally considered an important rainfall season for Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, this time round a drier than normal season is expected in most parts of the EAC region. Only western Uganda and the border area with South Sudan might see higher than normal rainfall according to the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum that brings together the national meteorological and hydrological experts in the region. The Deputy Secretary General in charge of Productive and Social Sectors in the EAC Secretariat, Hon. Christophe Bazivamo, urges the Partner States to take appropriate measures in time to mitigate possible threats to the citizens related to the expected high temperatures.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 2 October, 2020: As the Partner States in the East African Community (EAC) region ease measures that were established to prevent and respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the EAC Secretariat has commenced a training of trainers’ course for staff at 12 One Stop Border Posts between the Partner States.
The training that aims at strengthening the prevention of and response to COVID-19 and other communicable diseases, involves staff from various sectors in line with the One Health approach. The training programme kicked off this week at the Isebania/Sirari border post between Kenya and Tanzania. The training is conducted by AMREF Flying Doctors in close cooperation with the EAC Secretariat.
East African Court of Justice, 30th September 2020: The First Instance Division dismisses a case (Reference No. 6 of 2019 Male H Mabirizi Kiwanuka vs. The Attorney General of Uganda) challenging the government over the decision of the Supreme Court of Uganda that upheld the enactment of Constitutional (Amendment) Act No. 2 of 2018.
He contested the legality of a host of actions, directives and decisions of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the Government of the Republic of Uganda (‘the Respondent State’) for their role in the conceptualization, processing and validation of Uganda's Constitutional (Amendment) Act of 2018.
East African Legislative Assembly, Arusha, Tanzania: 1 October, 2020:The East African Legislative Assembly late yesterday approved the EAC Budget Estimates for the Financial Year 2020/21, amounting to USD 104,063,020, after a day-long debate via virtual conference. In the same vein, the House passed the EAC Appropriation Bill, 2020, with the said amendments, over the budget estimates of USD 97,669,708, presented last week by the Chair, Council of Ministers, Hon Nshuti Manasseh.
Under the vote, the EAC Secretariat is to receive USD 48,418,301, while the East African Legislative Assembly gets USD 23,067,137. The East African Court of Justice is expected to benefit from the kitty, earning USD 4,198,406, while USD 8,380,057 is earmarked for the Lake Victoria Basin Commission. The Assembly further approved USD 1,536,751 for the activities of the East African Science and Technology Commission, and USD 1,399,318 for the activities of the East African Kiswahili Commission.
East African Court of Justice, 1st October , 2020: The First Instance Division upheld preliminary objections raised by the Attorney General of Tanzania (Respondent) and dismissed Reference No.9 of 2016 Rashid Salim Adiy & Others vs The Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania & 2 Others.
The matter was filed by the Citizens of Zanzibar claiming inter alia that the purported unification of the Republic of Tanganyika and the Peoples Republic of Zanzibar to form a United Republic of Tanzania is a nullity. The Applicants were seeking Court’s declarations among others, that the purported Article of the Union allegedly signed on the 22nd April, 1964 between the Republic of Tanganyika and the Peoples Republic of Zanzibar is non-existent.
