The East African Community Inter-Parliamentary Games have now been slated for the first week of December 2026, with one member state out of the lineup.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the only country, out of the eight member states which will not participate.
DR Congo has been excluded simply because Kinshasa hasn’t been attending the EALA games, according to the organizers, but there is also the financing factor.
The Bureau of Speakers of the National Legislatures of the East African Community (EAC) and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) recently finalized arrangements for the sporting events.
The 16th Edition of the East African Community’s Inter- Parliamentary Games (IPG), will be staged in Arusha, Tanzania from December 4 to December 15, 2026.
According to the Legislator Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, from Somalia the games will be held under the official theme of “Umoja Wetu, Utajiri Wetu.”
Chairing the meeting, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, the Speaker of the House of the People of the Federal Republic of Somalia said the bureau resolved that the annual tournament will be hosted by East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA).
The games are to be staged at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium as well as other venues in the Northern Tanzanian City of Arusha.
The games will feature a league format across all disciplines and will fully deploy a newly developed Digital Registration Application created by Kenyan ICT Officer Amos Kimathi.
The application rights is, well, supposed to be soon transferred to EALA following technical capacity building.
As for the budgets of the games, the Bureau approved a total operational budget of USD 134,900 for the games, to be cost-shared equally through a one-off fee of USD 19,239 among seven Partner States.
The funds should be realized by the legislatures and EALA by the 15th of October 2026, with the Democratic Republic of Congo excluded because they have not been attending the games.
Participating parliaments were instructed to submit updated biodata and confirm sports disciplines by October 23, 2026,
Regarding governance and financial obligations, the Speakers’ Bureau examined the financial health of the East African Community in light of the 25th EAC Heads of State Summit directive.
The directive instituted a revised financing formula comprising 50 percent equal contributions and 50 percent assessed contributions, alongside a conditional 50 percent waiver on historical arrears.
Noting with concern that current financial contributions for Fiscal Year 2026/2027 stand at only 17 percent, with total outstanding dues exceeding USD 125 million, the Speakers committed to actively engaging their respective national governments and finance ministries to expedite the clearance of outstanding arrears.
