Eala officials had said the swearing in would go ahead even without Kenyan parliamentarians but changed their stand on Thursday
The regional parliament spokesman Bobi Odiko told reporters that Kenya was not likely to have picked its lawmakers by that day.
Eala rules do not allow the assembly to conduct its business in the absence of MPs from one EAC partner state.
Arusha
The inauguration of the fourth session of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala), scheduled for Monday next week, has been pushed to a later date.
The spokesperson of the regional Parliament Bobi Odiko told reporters here Thursday that Kenya was not likely to have picked its lawmakers by that day.
He said the Kenyan National Assembly notified Eala Thursday that the election process for the country's Eala members had not even started and requested that inauguration of the fourth Assembly be postponed.
Kenya is the only East African Community (EAC) partner state which had not submitted to Eala the names of its new members for the fourth Assembly.
The postponement of the inauguration of new Parliament was also confirmed by the outgoing Speaker Daniel Kidega after he dissolved the third Assembly late Thursday. Slight delay
"There will be a slight delay of the take off of the next Eala because Kenya has not yet sent us the names of its representatives", he told journalists.
The planned inauguration was to be followed by the swearing in of the recently elected Eala members from all the six EAC member states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.
On Monday Eala officials had said the swearing in would go ahead even without Kenyan parliamentarians but changed their stand on Thursday when they announced the process has been shelved altogether.
The adjournment means close to 50 elected Eala members and ex-officios from the five other countries who were heading for Arusha for the swearing in and inauguration are now being told to stay put.
Mr Odiko could not say when the House will be convened but hinted that they expected Kenya to elect their MPs and send their names to Eala within two weeks' time.
According to Eala Rules of Procedure, Eala cannot be allowed to conduct its business in the absence of MPs from one EAC partner state.
Poll campaigns
Kenya is currently in the middle of campaigns for the August General Election and there are fears that the process to elect Eala representatives could be further delayed as its Parliament and Senate would soon be dissolved.
Eala is the legislative organ of the EAC with nine elected members each from the six partner states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.
For the first time in its 16 year history, Eala will have representatives from South Sudan this year, bringing to 54 the number of elected members, up from the current 45.
This is will be the second time for Eala activities to stall due to failure by Kenya to pick its representatives. Due to the stalemate in the Kenyan Parliament, but which was resolved through a Court ruling, the Parliament could not hold sessions for several months from October 2006 to June 2007.
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