The bill aims to address the payment of former employees of the East African Community (EAC).
The Government of Uganda is finalising the process of enacting the East African Mediation Agreement Bill 2024, which seeks to regulate the equitable division of assets and liabilities of the now-dissolved East African Community corporation.
Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi and State Minister for East African Community Affairs Magode Ikuya expressed optimism that the bill would resolve issues faced by former employees of the EAC, decades after political turmoil disrupted operations in the early 1980s.
Government officials, including Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi and State Minister Ikuya Magode, appeared before the East African Community Parliament to present the bill for scrutiny.
The legislation follows the framework of the East African Community Mediation Agreement Bill of 1990.
Initially tabled in October 2024 by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs Rebecca Kadaga, the bill has now reached the committee stage.
It aligns with provisions agreed upon by the former EAC partner states--Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania--to address the payment of former EAC employees.
"The East African Community Mediation Agreement, 1984, was signed on 14 May 1984. Although Uganda did not immediately domesticate the agreement through an Act of Parliament, several initiatives have been made to implement its provisions," said Jackson Kafuuzi, deputy attorney general.
"This bill provides for the retrospective application of the agreement to legitimise decisions Uganda made before domesticating it."
State Minister Magode Ikuya added, "The delay in tracing documents was part of the problem. However, we have discovered them, and the critical task now is making this information publicly accessible. We aim to solve this issue permanently. We do not intend to grapple with the same matter for another 40 years."
Committee members, led by Chairperson James Nsaba Buturo, questioned the government on why it had taken so long to table this bill, which was signed in 1984.
"When Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda decided to share assets and liabilities after the collapse of the EAC, Kenya and Tanzania acted promptly, domesticating the agreements.
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Uganda, however, delayed its part. This law is necessary to facilitate payments to Ugandan employees who served in the EAC during that period," said Nsaba Buturo.
The assets in question include the East African Railways Corporation, the East African Airways Corporation, the East African Post and Telecommunications Corporation and its subsidiary East African External Communications Company, the East African Harbours Corporation, and its subsidiary East African Cargo Handling Services Limited.
