EALA to debate Bill to protect children from sexual abuse

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has high on its agenda a Bill intended to protect children, adolescents from sexual abuse when it holds its sitting in Kigali, Rwanda next week.

The Fifth Meeting of the fifth session of the third Assembly takes place from Monday, March 6th, 2017 to Thursday, March 16th, 2017.

The three key Bills on the agenda are the EAC Gender Equality and Development Bill, 2016, the EAC Polythene Materials Control Bill, 2016 and the EAC Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Bill, 2016, according to information released from Arusha.

"The EAC Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Bill, 2016, on its part, anticipates provision of legal framework for matters relating to sexual and reproductive health, to protect children, adolescents and young children from sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation and to provide for assisted reproductive technology and for related matters."

The Speaker of the Assembly, Daniel F. Kidega shall preside over the Sitting. President Paul Kagame is expected to address a Special Sitting on March 6, 2017

The EAC Gender Equality and Development Bill, 2016 makes provision for gender equality, protection and development in the Community.

 The Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC in Article 121 recognises the significant contribution that women make towards progress of socio-economic transformation and sustainable growth and the importance of full participation of women and men in the economic and social development of the Partner States.

The EAC Polythene Materials Control Bill, 2016  aims at providing a legal framework for the preservation of a clean and healthy environment through the prohibition of manufacturing, sale, importation and use of polythene materials.  The Bill was re-introduced during the Sitting held in August 2016 in Arusha, Tanzania.

Also to be deliberated on during the two week period are reports from various Committees of the House, including that of the Communications, Trade and Investment Committee on the status of the Railway Infrastructure Development in the Partner States and another on the oversight activity on the One Network Area in the EAC.

A report on the newly established EAC Institutions and another one on the Pastoral cross border Communities of Longido, Tanzania and Kajiado in Kenya will also be tabled and debated. The latter report follows an oversight activity carried in the Kenya-Tanzania border by the Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution while the former is as a result of an oversight activity by the Assembly's Committee on Accounts.