French could in the near future become an official language of the regional East African Community in addition to English and Kiswahili, an official source told APA on Tuesday.
Reports indicate that the government in France has so far agreed to assist the EAC in conducting a study on the modalities to include French as an official language of the bloc.
The support from the French government that was officially announced in 2020 comes after the EAC requested help from Paris to conduct a study on the modalities to include French as a language of the community in addition to English.
The request from the EAC Secretariat came as part of implementing the directive of Resolution No. 25 of the 15th Summit of Heads of State of the EAC held on November 30th, 2013.
Earlier this month, Joseph Ntakarutimana, a Burundian legislator who is also fluent in French, the official language in Burundi was elected as the new Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).
The Speaker of the EALA is elected by members on a rotational basis.
Article 137 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC provides that English shall be the official language of the community while Kiswahili will be developed as a lingua franca to serve the bloc.
In 2017, the East African Legislative Assembly also passed a resolution to adopt Kiswahili as an official language.
CU/as/APA