24.The question as to whether this Court has jurisdiction to entertain the Reference was raised by the 1st Respondent in his response to the Amended Reference filed on 22nd February 2013. The Applicant’s Submissions 25.Mr. Onsongo ,who argued the case for the Applicant ,was emphatic that this Court has jurisdiction to entertain the Reference and that Article 30 of the Treaty confers jurisdiction on any litigant resident in a Partner State of the East African Community to institute proceedings alleging that there is a violation of the Treaty. It is also his submission that any such litigant has direct access to the Court for the determination of any issue relating to infringement of the Treaty without the requirement for the exhaustion of local remedies. 26.He further contends that by dint of the provisions of Article 30 (1) of the Treaty, the instant Reference is properly before the Court and that pursuant to the aforesaid provisions of the Treaty, not unlike each of the Partner States, the Republic of Burundi has undertaken to honour commitments in respect of other organizations of which it is a member. 10 multinational and its international