Christopher Bazivamo swore in as the EAC Deputy Secretary

 The Rwandan national Hon Christopher Bazivamo has been elected as the Deputy Secretary of the EAC yesterday during the 17th General Assembly held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. During the Assembly, the Heads of States have integrated the South Sudan as its permanent member after assessing the validity of its request documents.

Before the Summit started, there were hope that the Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza was about to attend but, unexpectedly, he allocated delegates. The S.Sudan President Slava Kirr was also missing in the Summit.

The Summit was attended by the EAC Heads of States such as John Pombe Magufuli from Tanzania, being also the Chairman of the EAC , Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto.

The Summit assessed the insecurity that prevails in South Sudan between state loyal army and rebel army of Riek Machar who recently has quitted the country and went in exile.

In connection to this insecurity in his country, South Sudanese President Salva Kirr focuses on this matter and has never left Juba since June this year.

At his side, Rwandan President Paul Kagame welcomed the integration of the South Sudan in the community. The two years long Burundian conflict was also debated by Heads of States and they called upon the belligerents to come to peace agreement under the facilitation of the former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.

Burundi was represented by Alain Aimé Nyamitwe as President Pierre Nkurunziza prefers to remain in his country after experiencing a failed Coup in May, 2015. William Ruto from Kenya reminded the gathering about the importance of signing a multilateral economic partnership with the European Union that Rwanda and Kenya have signed last week.

As regards the importance of the agreement with EU and after careful talks, member states agreed on the fact that time is needed to assess all related issues to this agreement within three months before putting a signature and the request was agreed upon.

The current EAC general secretary is Burundian Libérat Mpyumukeko, being backed by his Rwandan counterpart Christopher Bazivamo who swore in yesterday.

UM– USEKE.RW