A legislator was stopped for speaking in Kiswahili during debate at the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA).
Dorothe Nganiza, a lawmaker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), had requested to switch to Kiswahili while making her contribution on the recent attacks in Uganda but her wish was rejected.
Rising on point of orders, legislators at the regional parliament insisted she speaks in English as it is the working language in the EAC.
Kenyan lawmaker David ole Sankok tried to intervene but she was not allowed to proceed in Kiswahili.
He argued that the rules could be changed to allow the DRC legislator to make her contribution in Kiswahili.
However, South Sudan’s Gabriel Alaak said allowing Nganiza to speak in Kiswahili would attract more problems.
“Countries like South Sudan will propose Arabic,” he explained.
When it was formed in 1999, the EAC was recreating the collapsed bloc in 1977 where Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were members.
It later expanded to include Rwanda as well as Burundi in 2007 and later South Sudan in 2016 before the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) joined last year. Somalia is currently being assessed on eligibility.
With over 200 million speakers, Kiswahili is one of the most widely used African languages.
Though Kiswahili and French have been cleared as official languages of the EAC, English remains the working language.
