Somalia’s bicameral Federal Parliament on Wednesday elected nine members to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), securing the Horn of Africa nation’s first legislative presence in the East African Community (EAC).

The joint sitting, chaired by Sheikh Adan Mohamed Noor (Madobe), Speaker of the House of the People, capped a process hailed as symbolising Somalia’s political integration with the rest of the EAC members. Somalia joined the EAC in March 2024, and was formally admitted into the bloc in November that year.

The nine legislators will join peers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the Assembly’s headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

Somalia will also nominate a judge to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), completing its institutional integration.

Deeper integration

The newly elected EALA members include Amb. Zahra Ali Hassan, who is Somalia's former envoy to Tanzania and non-resident ambassador to Rwanda; Dr. Abdisalam Omer, Somalia's former foreign minister and central bank governor; Prof. Faisal Roble, an urban policy analyst; and Abdirahman Bashir Shariff, a senior World Bank adviser and former deputy ambassador to the US.

Also included is Ilham Ali Gassar, a governance and peace-building expert.

The election was supervised by the Interim Committee on the Selection and Election of EALA Representatives, which set eligibility standards, including university education, English fluency, and regional cooperation experience.

Somalia became the EAC’s eighth member state in 2024, joining a market of 300 million people seeking deeper integration on trade, infrastructure, and security.

Established in 2001, EALA serves as the bloc’s legislative arm, shaping laws and oversight for the region.