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FM AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9300
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHMS/AMEMBASSY MUSCAT 0182
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 3111
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 0084
RUEHLGB/AMEMBASSY KIGALI 1588
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 1556
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 000088 
 
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 00000088  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 QBack to the FutureQ 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 currencyQthe European UnionQs QeuroQ 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 
Qoption,Q 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 AfricaQs 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 countryQs parliaments, but were not from them.  As the Qmain 
arm of the people,Q the purpose of the EALA was to Qeducate the 
masses.Q  Abdi argued that since the Secretariat Qwas mostly 
technocrats,Q 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 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 Qblank check,Q 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 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000088  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
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 yearQ 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 
QRegional AffairsQ 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 TanzaniaQs integration into 
the commonweal.  Tanzanian politicians needed to show leadership to 
allay fears.  Sometimes Tanzanian leaders pointed conflicts in the 
other partnersQbetween Rwanda and Burundi, within Uganda and the 
Kenyan elections, saying Qwe donQt have those problems here and 
donQt want them here through the EAC.Q  Abdi said that maybe 
Tanzania could be more optimistic and say the answer was for 
Tanzania Qnot to import conflict but to export peace.Q 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 issue 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 QchaosQ from 
just outside the region, Abdi said. 
 
STILL COMING TOGETHER 
--------------------- 
 
¶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 
EALAQs 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 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000088  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
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 TanzaniaQs legislature had Qbeen becoming 
quite bold.Q  This was healthy, and he hoped it was spreading in the 
region.  RwandaQs legislature was the only really transparent 
parliament in his view, while Burundi remained Qa 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. 
 
¶13. 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 EAL in capitals or in 
Arusha directly to Committee heads. 
 
DETAILS OF THE EAST AFRICA LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (EALA) 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶14. 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. 
¶15. 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 SpeakerQs 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 
------------------------------ 
 
¶16. 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 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; 
 
¶17. 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 
--------------------- 
 
¶18. Membership of EALA currently stands at 52, with nine Elected 
Members from each of the five EAC Partner States and seven 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000088  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
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 
Qdiversity of views present in their own National Assemblies,Q 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. 
 
¶19. 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. 
 
¶20. The current staff compliment at EALA is 23, 13 at professional 
level and 10 in the general staff category. 
LENHARDT