The propensity for cooperation among East African states predates the era of self-rule in the three founding nations that formed the original East African Community in 1967.
First, there was the 1917 Customs Union for Kenya and Uganda to which Tanganyika subscribed in 1927. Then there was the 1948-1961 East African High Commission followed by the East African Common Services Organisation founded in 1961.
The original East African Community was founded barely five years after the three founding states shook off colonial rule. In June 1967, President Jomo Kenyatta, Milton Obote and Julius Nyerere of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania signed the Treaty for East African Cooperation that then established the EAC. This bid for cooperation happened in spite of differences in political ideology embraced by member states back in the day.
The foregoing alone is a tell-tale testament to the magnetic inclination that interminably pulls East African states to a common cause informed by foreseeable multiple benefits.
The same is further confirmed by the fact that after the 1977 dissolution of the EAC, the Permanent Tripartite Commission for the East African Cooperation was established in 1993 ostensibly to breathe life back into the momentarily failed partnership. Seven years later—precisely in the year 2000—the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community came into force and a new journey began.
Today, the additional partners who have since joined EAC to put nearly 300 million people under a single regional ambit outnumber the three founding states to make a total of seven. These are Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and DRC. Clearly, the odyssey into a bigger and stronger EAC is well afoot.
The founding fathers of the East African Community—forged in the likeness of the European Union—envisaged an integrated region whose citizens would be bound by a common destiny for the greater good of all. Buoyed by the nobility of that dream, Article 7 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community whose operational principles were meant to guide the pathway to a people-centred cooperation was forged. It was meant to ultimately give way to a grand political federation.
It is in that spirit, that the national stakeholders’ consultations on the EAC political confederation started its engagement with the public yesterday, Monday, May 8, 2023. This crucial milestone is meant to take us closer to the establishment towards a federation erected on a firm foundation based on ideas and propositions of the public. Public participation is an excellent way of securing true ownership of any process involving multiple stakeholders.
Since the revival of the EAC in the year 2000, great strides have been made towards the implementation of various pillars of our regional integration. We have in place the Customs Union Protocol, the EAC Common Market Protocol and the Monetary Union Protocol.
Besides, the scaffolding of our political federation is, thankfully, taking shape apace. Significant progress has been recorded in our shared economic and sociocultural cooperation and more recently, enhanced cooperation in defence and interstate security.
What is needed now is rigorous public awareness creation on the journey the EAC is taking and the potential gains for the citizens of the member states of the political federation to secure widespread buy-in across the region. Such awareness will help allay unhinged fears, suspicions and mistrust among EAC citizens and hasten the onset of the federation.
The EAC has entrusted its stakeholders’ consultative process to a team of eminent constitutional experts under the leadership of former Chief Justice of Uganda, Justice (Rtd) Dr Benjamin Odoki with Kenya’s former long-serving Attorney General Amos Wako as his vice chairman. The process that started yesterday in Kenya has already taken place in Burundi and Uganda.
That team of regional constitutional experts comprises members drawn from all the EAC partner states. It will engage Kenyans from all the 47 counties between May 8 and 27, 2023, on what type of constitution EAC should have for a political federation in all former provincial headquarters.
Thereafter, it will sit in Nairobi to listen to other national stakeholders. Kenyans should take full advantage of this opportunity and contribute towards shaping the political destiny of a fully integrated EAC.
Our local media has its work clearly cut out if we are to properly inform the public about the progress and outcomes of this phenomenal undertaking.
Cabinet Secretary for the East African Community, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development
