By Zephania Ubwani
Members of the East African Legislative Assembly have paid glowing tribute to their former colleague the late Mathias Kasamba who succumbed to a brain tumor on Tuesday night.
The MPs said Kasamba was vocal on the dismal performance of the agriculture sector in the East African region and pushed for creation of a new body to oversee the sector development.
In a tweet, EALA Speaker Martin Ngoga says the late Kasamba was one of the active legislators in the House and contributed enormously to the debates.
The outspoken lawmaker was until last week seen in the screens of the plenary sessions of EALA now held virtually due to Covid-19 outbreak.
The late Kasamba was elected into the Fourth EALA (2017-2022) in December 2017 and was to end his first term late 2022.
Regulations require that another member is nominated to fill the void upon death of a legislator, but officials at the regional Assembly in Arusha could not confirm that another MP from Uganda would be elected to fill the now vacant position.
Each of the six EAC partner states has nine members in the Assembly.
The tenure for all the elected members to EALA, which is the legislative organ of the EAC is five years, renewable once.
