EAC on brink? We've rocked the boat enough

The East African Community (EAC) is in the red. Budget issues, waning trust and a galaxy of squabbles are gently sniffing life out of it.

Author Elechi Amadi would say the bloc is feeling a cold grip of despair, and the hollow sensation which precedes a horrible calamity.

Writing in this space late last year, I challenged EAC chairman Salva Kiir to succeed where his predecessors failed. That doesn’t seem to be happening.

Mr Kiir succeeded Burundi’s Evariste Ndayishimiye at a difficult time last November. First, his credentials were dented by the fragile South Sudan peace process.

Then, the ‘cowboy’ also needed to be politically moderate to win trust and pave the way for economic reawakening. Also, internal rifts were rife. We saw countries burn chickens and auction animals from across the border. During Covid, truck drivers badly suffered in neighbouring countries.

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You will recall how trade wars over milk and eggs, and territorial conflicts in Lake Victoria escalated. Then came fuel haulage tiffs and alterations that led to the banning of KQ from Tanzanian airspace.

That was back then. Fresh revelations that EAC’s programmes have stalled due to lack of funds at the secretariat highlight a bigger problem: the lack of genuine commitment from member states.

They haven’t remitted dues estimated at $40 million. As a result, the East African Court of Justice has suspended sessions and workers in Arusha didn’t get May salaries.

Little is happening. The bloc is huffing and puffing despite us flying the ‘jumuiya’ flag. As this happens, member countries are pursuing other routes they believe will bring growth faster and better.

For instance, Kenya, the region’s top dog, has just raised its stakes in three African financial institutions, including the African Development Bank, by $100 million. The eight-member bloc is seemingly being shunted aside. This begs the question, what are our priorities? Could we be rocking the boat from within, and to what gain?

Have vested interests spilt over such that we don’t care about our regional destiny? What becomes of our Pan-Africa agenda? And are we ‘killing’ the bloc at the behest of scheming outsiders?  

It’s abundantly clear the region’s leadership is causal about the envisaged political federation and economic integration.

As citizens long-sufferingly wait to achieve integration, the leadership’s behaviour speaks volumes – impatient and noncommittal. Worse still, citizens are losing faith in what they are told about integration because they hardly think it will benefit them.

Methinks that on top of resource constraints and dishonesty, what ails EAC the most is failure by leaders to involve communities through public participation in regional matters.

It means the bloc’s ideas will go nowhere. The die is cast and the languid modus operandi will continue.

It is absurd to imagine some form of internal sabotage. Way out? Chairman Kiir must come out to strongly to remind members not to throw away the baby with the bath water.

He owes us a convincing explanation over the cash crunch. It calls for a review of Article 5 of the EAC treaty. Let countries pay up or give up membership.

The East African bloc must catch up with the likes of the EU and the Arab League.

While intra-EAC trade surged to $11 billion, low tariffs, elimination of barriers, free movement of goods and people, intermodal connectivity and one-stop border posts will only pay off if the bloc is united and resourced. Something has to give way.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said ‘our struggle is not an isolated one. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.’ Let leaders return to the drawing board and consider EAC as their pet project.

Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo must henceforth ease their tensions over M23 rebels. Also, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, South Sudan and Tanzania must bond better through shared aspirations. The bloc must be faithful to itself.

-The writer is a communications practitioner. Twitter(X): markoloo