John
Magufuli addresses reporters at the Arusha State Lodge ahead of the
17th East Africa Heads of State Summit at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge
near Usa River in Arumeru District today. Looking on right is Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni.
Tanzania passes over the chairmanship of the East African Community at the Heads of State Summit, nobody is sure who will be next, as Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza, who is next in the line, faces trouble and protests back home.
It is the first East African Community
Heads of State Summit to be attended by President John Magufuli since he
assumed power after winning the general election last October.
Already, the Pan African Lawyers Union
(PALU) has written to the summit asking the heads of state not to allow
Burundi to be given any leading task in the community until the chaos in
Bujumbura is cleared.
However, observers here are also not
sure if Mr Nkurunziza will agree to chair the summit for the next 12
months amid controversies in his country.
Top on the agenda is the consideration
of reports by the EAC Council of Ministers on: the negotiations on the
admission of the Republic of South Sudan into the Community; sustainable
financing mechanisms for the EAC; and the EAC Institutional Review.
The 17th summit will also consider
Council reports on: the Model, Structure and Action Plan of the EAC
Political Federation; and Implementation of the Framework for Harmonised
EAC Roaming Charges.
Until Tuesday night, Nkurunziza had not yet appeared for the Arusha Summit, though reports had it that he may arrive today.
Fresh from his highly contested
presidential election victory, Ugandan Head of State Yoweri Museveni
jetted into Kilimanjaro International Airport yesterday evening ready
for today’s Heads of Summit at the scenic Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. Only
two leaders jetted into Arusha yesterday.
The other leader was Zanzibar President
Ali Mohammed Shein, who is also due for a repeated presidential election
on March 20. He arrived in the evening.
Their host, President John Magufuli,
arrived in Arusha last Sunday and will be the last to leave here for
Ngurdoto because he has the task of inaugurating the Sakina-Tengeru
section of ongoing road construction which will spearhead the proposed
Arusha-Holili carriage way.
He is expected to flag-off the project
alongside Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Burundi President Pierre
Nkurunziza, his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame and President Kenyatta
are expected to arrive in Arusha today.
Tanzania is passing on the EAC
Chairmanship to the next president but it is still not known who will
take over as the most likely candidate, President Nkurunziza, is already
facing post-election conflict and political controversy in his country.
He may, thus, not be ready for the new task at the helm of the five-state regional summit. Arusha
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