SUMMARY REPORT OF THE PLENARY SESSION OF FEBRUARY 15, 2023

The year two thousand and twenty-three, on the fifteenth day of February, senators met in the hemicycle of the Senate in Gitega for the 124^th plenary session of the sixth legislature, whose items on the agenda were the following:

• the presentation of the summary of the 2020/2021 annual report of the College of Quaestors;

• the presentation of the report of the special commission in charge of collecting the grievances of the population and following up on the recommendations made by the Senate during the plenary sessions;

• the presentation of the report of EALA activities by the standing committee in charge of gender issues and relations with the Legislative Assembly of the East African Community;

• discuss various issues.

The work of the session was directed by the Right Honourable Speaker of the Senate, Emmanuel SINZOHAGARA. This session, which attended by 31 senators, began as usual with a prayer at 9:18 am.

Opening the session, Senate Speaker first welcomed the Honourable senators present. He then invited the First Quaestor to present the summary of the report.

Taking the floor, the First Quaestor first apologized for the late presentation of the report caused by the unavailability of certain data. She then indicated that the production of this report referred to the Internal Instruction of the Senate no. SNB/CP/09 of 12/02/2016 on the organization and functioning of the College of Quaestors in its chapter II, article 3, which stipulates that the College of Quaestors produce a report that identifies any irregularities and shortcomings that taint the administrative and financial management of the Senate, and proposes corrective and performance improvement measures with a view to promoting the management of the Institution.

In general, she continued, the College of Quaestors noted that there has been a clear improvement in management despite some shortcomings observed in administrative and financial management for the 2020-2021 financial year compared to previous years and encourages managers to move forward.

The session continued with the presentation of the report of the special commission in charge of collecting the grievances of the population and following up on the recommendations made by the Senate during the plenary sessions.

In his presentation, the President of this commission spoke of the various grievances of the population that the commission received during the raids carried out. The observation is that most of the files recorded are related to land disputes. He indicated that the commission has followed up on various files, some of which have found solutions and others are being analyzed. He also pointed out that the role of the commission is to help the population to settle their disputes amicably and to provide guidance for legal proceedings; therefore, the commission does not replace the court.

In view of what is mentioned, the plenary assembly made a recommendation in the direction of lightening the work of the special commission. From now on, the cases will first be sent to the senators of the constituencies under their jurisdiction; only cases which have not been handled at this first level will be forwarded to the special commission.

For the third report, the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Gender and Relations with the Legislative Assembly of the East African Community issues presented to the plenary a summary of briefing notes on EALA activities sent by the EAC Secretary General.

In this summary of the notes, she cited the bills, reports and resolutions analyzed and adopted by the Legislative Assembly of the East African Community.

At the end of the analysis of the summary, the commission identified some relevant observations and subsequently issued recommendations to this effect.

The observations noted are among others:

• Partner States apply the law on load control differently in the East African Community;

• all member states have delays in ratifying the protocols;

• many EAC citizens are unaware of the protocols concluded by the Community and those which are not superseded by the partner states;

• there is a lack of sensitization of EAC protocols for officials;

• there is a delay in depositing the instruments of ratification with all the protocols pending.

The recommendations:

• Direct all Partner States to implement the EAC Vehicle Load Control Act 2016 and its regulations;

• Request the EAC Secretariat to prepare an awareness programme on the proper use of roads, to be implemented by the EAC Secretariat and Partner States;

• request Partner States and the EAC Secretariat to disseminate and raise public awareness of existing Community laws and always set a deadline for Partner States to ratify a concluded protocol;

• ask partner states to ratify all pending protocols, as they have taken a long time since they were concluded and adopted;

• ask the General Secretariat to prepare updated information on the status of ratification and implementation of all EAC protocols;

• ask Partner States and the EAC Secretariat to establish sensitization programmes for EAC citizens on various integration processes, including protocols and laws of the Community.

After these observations and recommendations, the senators agreed to invite the Minister having the East African Community in his attributions to an oral question with debate to give clarifications on certain points. They also decided to invite the Speaker of the EALA to exchange particularly on information relating to the opportunities offered by the Community.

The session ended with the last item on the agenda for the day in Camera.