Rwanda and Burundi joined the East African Community (EAC) after the signing of Treaties of accession on Monday 18th June 2007 at the
extraordinary Heads of State Summit of East Africa in Kampala.
This adds the total number of members of the EAC to five that is Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and now Rwanda and Burundi.
According to Sir Arthur Lewis, Regional integration is the unification of nation states into a larger whole. It’s a dynamic process that entails the Country’s willingness to share or unify into a larger whole.
According to Article 3, Sub-Article (1) of the EAC Treaty: “A country to join the bloc must have a border with one of the EAC members, must have a democratically elected Government and must be running a free market economy “.
The EAC Treaty was negotiated afresh since 1993 and eventually signed on 30th November 1999.
Since that time a lot of progress has been achieved. The trade amongst the EAC countries is over US $ 1.1Bn. The combined population of East Africa is now about 115 million people. The population of Uganda alone will be 54 million in the year 2025 according to President of the Republic of Uganda, His Excellency Yoweri Museveni.
The new trade bloc aims to work towards economic policies that are pro-market, pro-private sector and pro-liberalization. By pooling in their resources and promoting free trade within the region, the East African Community aims to emerge as a leading trade entity in East Africa.
The East African Community (EAC) is the only rational answer to the colonial irrationalities. The colonialist divided the people basing on religious and other means of isolation so that they could make it easy to colonize the African Peoples, according to President Museveni.
The EAC should therefore be committed to removing those differences among the East African peoples and lead the path for regional development. The EAC should be committed towards improving our economies, the quality of life of the people of East Africa and relations between the five countries.
This should be the beginning of a new chapter towards co-operation in which none of the old mistakes should be repeated.
The “old mistakes” refer to the problems that led to the collapse of the EAC in 1977. East Africa had become ideologically split then, with Kenya advocating capitalism and social interventions, while Tanzania pursued socialism.
Besides, there was mistrust among the leaders especially after Uganda’s former dictator Idi Amin took power by force. This essentially led to the collapse of the federation. The old mistakes should therefore not emerge if the EAC is to achieve the aims to which it has been resurrected.
The whole idea of a federation is good, but trouble is that it is being done hurriedly. It’s far-fetched. We have so many different ideologies, different tribes, traditions and religions.
The wannaichi (common man) knows nothing about the EAC. So who is it supposed to benefit if the common man has know idea of what the EAC is all about? Perhaps the answer lies in the leaders themselves.
The EAC is to serve the interests of those in power.
They are all bent on knowing who is to be the next President of the EAC!
The people it is supposed to serve have never been consulted. The whole idea was done hurriedly that the chances of achieving its aims are very slim. I thought that it is common knowledge that, before you put a roof on a house, you need to build the foundations.
I thought the common man is the foundation. Unfortunately, for the East African Community, this is not the case. The whole idea is just being imposed on the people.
Another problem is that most of these countries are faced with instabilities of all kinds. Talk of the recent Mungiki uprising in Kenya or the LRA insurgency in northern Uganda.
How the hell are these leaders are going to solve the East African problems collectively, yet they have failed to solve problems in their own individual countries? Why should you sweep your neighbor’s compound and yet you haven’t swept yours? Wouldn’t be better to first sweep your compound before you sweep your neighbor’s!
The East African leaders should first solve the problems faced in their individual countries before they talk of EAC. Little has also been talked about the EAC. The only time you hear about it is say, when the Heads of States are having a meeting somewhere, the details of which hardly get communicated to the common man.
The East African Countries should work towards peace, order and development of the region. The Countries must be willing to co-operate irrespective of the circumstances.
However, without wide consultation of the people and lack of co-operation among member countries, the EAC shall be a “Dream” that will come to pass.
Those concerned should go back to the drawing board and involve the common man, if the EAC is to achieve the goals for which it has been revived.
