Chinese is local in East Africa, so Beijing can as well join the EAC
China is about the biggest player in East Africa. So, is it fair to China to be treated as an outsider while being local? ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGA | NMG
As we celebrate the admission of the DR Congo to the East African Community, let those who think for us urgently consider a couple of amendments in the charter on how the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is constituted.
Last year, the Council of Ministers proposed slashing of the number of MPs each country sends to Arusha from nine to five. Then we had six member states but now we have seven. Multiplied by nine that raises the elected members from 54 to 63, to which are added eight ex-officios, raising the MPs to 71. This is not good for the cash-strapped EAC, more than a third of whose budget (35 percent) is already consumed by EALA.
