By Luke Anami

The debate over Kenya’s eligibility to provide the next East African Community Secretary General (SG) is threatening to divide the partner States even as the Government downplays the matter.

Last week, Kenya’s EAC Minister Prof Hellen Sambili denied media reports that Kenya is lobbying for the powerful regional position, stating the prerogative of appointing the third SG lies with the EAC Heads of State.

"Those who are saying that it is our time are ignorant of the procedures to be followed in determining the third EAC Secretary General. The Heads of State have the final say as to who becomes the EAC Secretary General," Sambili said.

"As a signatory to the EAC treaty, Kenya will abide by any decision taken by the five presidents."

But even as the Minister downplayed the matter, it was clear that she was advancing the view that Kenya is eligible for the position when she referred to the next SG as the third in line.

Expiry of tenure

According to the EAC treaty, the Secretary General has to come from a different Member State after a five-year term.

The position is currently occupied by Tanzania’s Juma Mwapachu whose tenure expires in April this year. He comes after Kenya’s Francis Muthaura, and Uganda’s Amanya Mushega who served before him.

Rwanda and Burundi, which acceded to the EAC treaty on June 18, 2007, and became full members of the Community from July 1, 2007, are reading mischief into the argument advanced by Kenya and Uganda that the next SG is the third and not the fourth.

"What is official is that the post is falling vacant in April, but what I haven’t been told officially is that there is a dispute," President Paul Kagame is quoted to have told a Kigali newspaper.

"The rules are clear. This is not an elective office. It is rotational,"said President Kagame.

"I don’t think this (the rotational process) is going to change. My expectation is that the rules will be followed, and to my knowledge, it is the turn of Rwanda or Burundi."

Rwanda’s EAC Minister, Monique Mukaruliza, went a step further, and echoed the President’s comments in a paid-up advertisement in the region’s newspapers two weeks ago.

But is Kenya eligible for the position given the arguments advanced by Rwanda and Burundi that Kenya has held the position before?

Kenya believes she is eligible because its former Secretary General, Francis Muthaura, served for only one year after the ratification of the EAC Treaty in 2001.

"We are not opposed to the position going to either Rwanda or Burundi. But what we are saying is that Muthaura served for only a year as the SG before Uganda took over the position, making it the first country to fill the position," Gervase Akhaabi, East African Legislative Assembly MP from Kenya said.

"So Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi are eligible to hold the position,"

With the culmination of intergovernmental negotiations on the re-establishment of the EAC, the member States unanimously supported the appointment of Ambassador Francis Muthaura as the first Executive Secretary 1996 to1999.

For four years, Ambassador Muthaura’s duty included putting in place the EAC Treaty, as well as all the necessary institutional structures that have since provided the crucial bedrock for the evident growth, and stable integration of the Community.

Transitional arrangement

Subsequently— Muthaura who is the current Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet — assumed the position of Secretary General as from 1999 to 2001, holding the substantive position for only one year.

It is on this premise that Kenya is holding that it is eligible this time round since the re-established EAC treaty took effect in 2000.

"Ambassador Muthaura was deployed to re-establish the EAC and his tenure in 1999 was only a transitional arrangement before the formation of the community’s organs as it was not covered by the EAC treaty," Akhaabi said.

"The argument that Ambassador Muthaura served as the Secretary General, and therefore it is not Kenya’s turn, is misplaced."

A senior official at the EAC, who requested not to be named, said Kenya has a case because it has not had a chance to serve the full five-year term of a secretary-general.

The other view being advanced is defense of Kenya stems from the fact that the EAC is private sector-driven. Kenya has arguably one of the most vibrant private sectors exploring and investing in the region.

With Equity Bank and Nakumatt, two of Kenya’s leading private sector players going regional, certainly there is a shift and renewed urgency to push for a fully fledged EAC integration process.

It is not lost to observers that Kenya’s private sector is frustrated by the slow pace of the implementation of the Common Market Protocol, and is silently pushing for the post to go to a Kenyan who will hasten the process.