EAC summit postponed over Kenya’s elections

MARC NKWAME in Arusha

A SUMMIT of the East Africa Community (EAC) heads of state slated for Arusha has been postponed for the third time, this time citing the ongoing primary voting process in Kenya as the latest reason.

The heads of state from the six countries making up the EAC have decided to let Kenya, a key member state, to complete its ongoing primary voting process as it prepares for its proposed August 2017 General Election.

As a result, the summit that was to be held here on Wednesday, 10th of May, 2017 under the chairmanship of President John Magufuli, will now be held on Saturday, 20th of May, 2017, which may again be adjourned without notice.

A report from EAC Secretariat here says, the initial venue for the Summit has since been relocated from Arusha, where it was supposed to be held at the International Conference Center (AICC) on the 6th of April, to Dar-es-salaam next week, in case the dates will not be changed again.

Last month, the EAC head of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs, Mr Richard Owora Othieno had announced that the EAC Summit which was to be held here on the 6th of April, 2017, had to be scrapped off- ostensibly to pave way for Burundi, which dedicates the sixth day of April every year as “Assassination Day” to remember the death of the late President Cyprien Ntaryamira, who together with President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda were killed when the plane they were flying in on their return home from Dar es Salaam, was shot down by unknown people in 1994. Previously, the date rescheduled for May 10 has now been moved to May 20.