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RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHDR #0106/01 0341435
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031435Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9345
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHMS/AMEMBASSY MUSCAT 0216
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 3149
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 0122
RUEHLGB/AMEMBASSY KIGALI 1626
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 1594
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
RUEHDS/USMISSION USAU ADDIS ABABA
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHMFIUU/CJTF HOA//J3
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHLMC/MCC WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DAR ES SALAAM 000106 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E JTREADWELL; AF/C AKEITH AND AF/EPS 
STATE PASS TO USAID/EA 
STATE PASS TO USITC 
TREASURY FOR REBECCA KLEIN 
LABOR FOR INTERNATIONAL LABOR AFFAIRS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR PREL ECON XW ZF TZ
SUBJECT: EAST AFRICAN LEGISLATURE COULD BE VEHICLE FOR U.S. 
REGIONAL GOALS 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000106  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: On January 20, Ambassador Lenhardt paid a courtesy 
call on Speaker Abdirahin Abdi (Kenya) of the East African 
Legislative Assembly (EALA). Abdi said the EALA had a 
legislative mandate through the treaty that bonded the member 
states.  Bills passed by the EALA had the force of law among 
all members. Abdi said trans-border issues like trafficking or 
money laundering, and perhaps anti-terrorism and human rights 
guarantees, were areas where the EALA could play a key role. 
On expansion, Abdi said that Sudan and Somalia had sent 
inquiries on affiliation, but nothing would be entertained 
until both countries underwent elections. Abdi hoped for more 
parliament-to-parliament cooperation and that U.S. legislators 
would be encouraged to visit.  U.S. demarches could be served 
to members of the EAL in capitals or in Arusha directly to 
Committee heads.    END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. On January 20, Ambassador Lenhardt paid a courtesy call on 
Speaker Abdirahin Abdi (Kenya) of the East African Legislative 
Assembly (EALA), based in Arusha, Tanzania.  At the outset of 
the meeting, Ambassador Lenhardt quipped that the motto for 
the EAC should be "Back to the Future" since in colonial times 
and early independence Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (and, 
briefly, an independent Zanzibar) were part of a regional 
union with a shared currency.  Abdi laughed in agreement.  He 
added that many who were against moves toward regional 
consolidation, like a common Customs Union, were now singing 
its praises.  Inter-regional trade had in fact risen.  As to a 
common currency- the European Union's "euro" was an example of 
what can be achieved with political will.  Joining the smaller 
economies of East Africa together should be easier.  On the 
Customs Union, the trick now was to manage expectations.  Now 
that it has come into force, most recently there have been 
three Ministers saying three very different things to three 
different audiences, Abdi said. 
 
¶3. Ambassador Lenhardt said that President Obama wanted Africa 
within the global strategic framework as a partner, not a 
dependent.  He said he attended an October 2009 conference of 
regional U.S. Ambassadors with the outcome being that U.S. 
Missions in East Africa would take on more of a regional 
perspective.  East Africa was a growing market, and regional 
infrastructural integration would be key to the future.  Abdi 
agreed, saying that the latter was not an "option," but rather 
a necessity. 
 
THE EALA... AS THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. Abdi said the real function of the EALA was to represent 
the people during East Africa's move toward political 
federation.  There were nine delegates from each member state 
(45 total). Each state picked its candidates a little 
differently.  All were chosen by his or her country's 
parliaments, but were not from them.  As the "main arm of the 
people," the purpose of the EALA was to "educate the masses." 
Abdi argued that since the Secretariat "was mostly 
technocrats," few people really knew what was going on in 
Arusha.  By holding EALA plenaries in rotation throughout each 
of the member states, locals could get to know the work of the 
EALA and, by extension, the EAC as a whole. 
 
...AS A FAST TRACK FOR REGIONAL LAWS 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5. Abdi said that what was special about the EALA was that it 
had a legislative mandate through the treaty that bonded the 
member states together.  Unlike the consultative assemblies of 
SADC (Southern Africa Development Community), COMESA (Common 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000106  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
Market of Eastern and Southern Africa) and other regional 
entities, bills passed by the EALA had the force of law in all 
member states.  Only the EU Parliament had similar authority. 
Moreover, he asserted, laws passed by the EALA did not need to 
be duplicated or re-adopted by the parliaments of member 
states.  This "blank check," as Abdi called it, had never 
really been put to practice.  However, on trans-border issues 
where there seemed to be a consensus of the five heads of 
state (Abdi named issues like trafficking or money laundering, 
perhaps anti-terrorism and human rights guarantees)--  perhaps 
the EALA could play a key role.  Many such issues were agreed 
to in principal by individual states but laws were slow to 
come by given the pace of nascent African assemblies. 
Currently, regional legislation was top-down: agreements like 
the Customs Union were signed by heads of State, published as 
law but then had to be adopted domestically. Not all regional 
statutes had to go this route, Abdi said. 
 
¶6. In practice, Abdi said, bills debated in the EALA came from 
the Executive Branch or the Secretariat, but in principal, 
bills could come from the floor of the Assembly.  Such bills 
might be harder to implement, however, as there would need to 
be buy-in from a majority of delegates from each country.  The 
only bill-from-the-floor in recent times is a proposal to form 
a Regional Election Commission that would conduct general 
elections in all member states yet would be independent of 
each ruling government, accountable through the EAC (East 
African Community) Abdi said he personally thought it was a 
good idea given the problems of elections in all member states 
and recalling in particular violence in Kenya and Zanzibar 
elections.  Nonetheless, he thought such a move would have to 
wait until full political federation, since such an 
organization would push the limits of sovereignty and probably 
infringe on the constitutions of member states. 
 
...AND AS CONFLICT RESOLVER 
-------------------------- 
 
¶7. As for a role in monitoring elections, Abdi said that it 
had been done, but an EALA-backed monitoring report on the 
Kenya elections had been used by the EU in its human rights 
reports, causing the Kenya delegation to vote against such 
measures.  Meanwhile, three states are scheduled to hold 
elections this year- Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania- so this 
year might not be so smooth, Abdi said. 
 
¶8. Abdi noted that there were seven committees of the EALA. 
The "Regional Affairs" Committee had a useful possible role 
for conflict resolution.  On Tanzania, Abdi said Tanzania used 
Zanzibar and the Union issue as an excuse to slow-roll 
Tanzania's integration into the commonwealth.  Tanzanian 
politicians needed to show leadership to allay fears. 
Sometimes Tanzanian leaders pointed conflicts in the other 
partners-between Rwanda and Burundi, within Uganda and the 
Kenyan elections, saying "we don't have those problems here 
and don't want them here through the EAC."  Abdi said that 
maybe Tanzania could be more optimistic and say the answer was 
for Tanzania "not to import conflict but to export peace." 
Meanwhile, other member states might help with the issue of 
Zanzibar. The point was that in this day in age there were no 
conflicts that were solely a partner state issues alone. 
Turmoil in one state affected the whole region.  Meanwhile, 
the joint union of functioning states (i.e., the EAC) could 
serve as a bulwark against the spread of "chaos" from just 
outside the region, Abdi said. 
 
STILL COMING TOGETHER 
--------------------- 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000106  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶9. A more practical role for the EALA was to control the 
budget of the various EAC organs.  Donor partners still had a 
broader say in that regard than the actual EALA, Abdi admitted, 
but the EALA had the power to re-allocate monies.  Sweden, 
Denmark and Ireland were EALA's biggest donors, but there was 
just enough money for each EALA committee to have but one 
activity per year.  A key goal was to have a professional 
staff.  Of the 27 who were funded and trained during the last 
session of the Legislature, Abdi said, only six retuned for 
the present session. 
 
¶10. All in all, Abdi noted that the EALA was only eight years 
old.  Sure, there were problems, but by-and-large the 
organization worked better than some others.  He admitted to a 
rivalry with the Executive Secretariat (and between him and 
Secretary-General Mwapachu) but said such competition was 
healthy for democracy.  More broadly, there had been issues of 
fund oversight, but donors were becoming more rigorous in 
inculcating accountability.  Overall, Abdi said parliaments 
throughout Africa have been very weak.  As an aside, he 
commented that Tanzania's legislature had "been becoming quite 
bold."  This was healthy, and he hoped it was spreading in the 
region.  Rwanda's legislature was the only really transparent 
parliament in his view, while Burundi remained "a real 
challenge." 
 
¶11. On expansion, Abdi said that Sudan and Somalia had sent 
inquiries on affiliation.  Abdi said that nothing along those 
lines would be entertained until both countries underwent 
elections.  Ambassador Lenhardt noted that sometimes the 
possibility of eventual integration could cause states to 
modify and mature. 
 
¶12. Abdi hoped for more parliament-to-parliament cooperation 
and that visiting U.S. Congressmen would be encouraged to 
visit.  Likewise, the U.S. could send notes on areas of 
cooperation-- demarches could be served to members of the EALA 
in capitals or in Arusha directly to Committee heads. 
 
DETAILS OF THE EAST AFRICA LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (EALA) 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶13. The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is the 
independent, legislative arm of the East Africa Community.  It 
was formally inaugurated by the Heads of State of the original 
three EAC Partners States (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) at its 
first sitting in Arusha on November 30, 2001.  The First 
Assembly served from 2001-2006.  In 2007 Hon. Abdirahin 
Haithar Hajji Abdi, from Kenya, was elected as the Speaker of 
the Second Assembly and will serve until June 2012. 
 
¶14. The election of Abdi was controversial in that the EAC 
unanimously agreed that a Kenyan should be Speaker (since 
Mwapachu, a Tanzanian, was EAC Secretary-General).  However, 
there was not agreement in the Kenyan Parliament as to which 
political party would hold the Speaker's position.  The 
wrangling went on for some months until Abdi, from the Kenya 
African National Union (KANU) party finally was agreed upon. 
MANDATE AND FUNCTIONS OF EALA 
------------------------------ 
 
¶15. Article 49 of the EAC Treaty establishes EALA as the 
legislative organ of the Community.  Like most legislatures 
EALA has as its core functions legislating, oversight and 
representation. Article 49 further states that EALA: 
 
--Shall liaise with the National Assemblies of Partner States 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000106  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
on matters relating to the Community; 
 
--Shall debate and approve the budget of the Community; 
 
--Shall consider annual reports on the activities of the 
Community, annual audit reports of the Audit Commission and 
any other reports referred to it by the Council; 
 
--Shall discuss all matters pertaining to the Community and 
make recommendations to the Council as it may deem necessary 
for the implementation of the Treaty; 
 
--May for purposes of carrying out its functions, establish 
any committee or committees for such purposes as it deems 
necessary. 
 
¶16. EALA maintains seven standing committees: Accounts; 
Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources; General Purpose; 
House Business; Legal, Rules and Privileges; Regional Affairs 
and Conflict Resolution; and Trade Communication and 
Investment. EALA may also appoint Select Committees as needed. 
The composition and leadership of each of these Committees is 
equally shared among the Partners States. 
 
EALA MEMBERSHIP/STAFF 
--------------------- 
 
¶17. Membership of EALA currently stands at 52, with nine 
Elected Members from each of the five EAC Partner States and 
seven Ex-officio Members.  Elected Members are voted into 
their positions by their respective National Assemblies, 
though not from the ranks of those Assemblies.  The Treaty for 
the Establishment of the East African Community requires that 
Elected Members should represent the "diversity of views 
present in their own National Assemblies," and also that their 
selection meets certain criteria for gender balance.  As such, 
EALA members come from diverse backgrounds such as business, 
NGOs, retired civil servants and politicians. Aside from the 
latter, many have little or no parliamentary experience. 
 
¶18. The Ex-official Membership of EALA consists of one 
Minister from each partner state responsible for East African 
Community Affairs (currently there are five Ministers; 
Assistant Ministers may participate in the Assembly when 
Ministers are not present.  (For Tanzania, Deputy Minister for 
East African Cooperation Mohamed Aboud performs that duty.) 
The Secretary General of the EAC and the Counsel to the 
Community are also Ex-officio Members.  They may participate 
in debates but have no right to vote in the Assembly.  The Ex- 
officio Members report to EALA on the implementation of the 
Treaty and any other issues of interest to the Partner States. 
 
¶19. The current staff compliment at EALA is 23, 13 at 
professional level and 10 in the general staff category. 
 
LENHARDT