Time for EAC to lower its sights & throw out political federation dream

mizan254

Member
May 15, 2017
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The strains on EAC integration suggest growing political pushback by member states.
In the web of sometimes over-lapping and conflicting interests, common ground is hard to find.
The strains on EAC integration suggest growing political pushback by member states.
There is no happy ending to this story. However you look at it, a political federation presents insuperable obstacles.
The 18th East African Community Heads of State Summit finally took place in Dar es Salaam last week, after being put off three times.
At one point, Burundi requested postponement to remember the assassination of president Cyprien Ntaryamira, when the plane of Rwanda’s Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down near Kigali in 1994. Another was put off to allow Kenya to complete its party primaries ahead of the General Election in August.
The reasons sound plausible, but Burundi’s “Assassination Day” and the dates for party primaries in Kenya were known well before the Summit dates were set. So, were these the real reasons for rescheduling? Sceptics suspect deeper problems. Interpersonal relations between the EAC heads of state seem uneasy, if not sour.
Rwanda feels that Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza is stoking a regional crisis. A majority of the nearly 400,000 people said to have fled Burundi are Tutsis, and many have gone to Rwanda. President Nkurunziza’s practices echo — rather uncomfortably and personally for President Paul Kagame — the Hutu-led anti-Tutsi pogroms in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rwanda that forced him and his family into exile.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was miffed that the EAC was lukewarm— even hostile — to Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed’s candidacy for the chair of the African Union Commission. Kenya suspects that Burundi and Tanzania abandoned Amina while Uganda says it stuck with her. Nairobi is sceptical.
Blowing hot and cold
Tanzania and Kenya have been in a zero-sum race for the infrastructure corridor of the EAC. But Nairobi recently lost that race , when Kigali and Kampala abandoned the previously agreed rail and pipeline routing through Kenya for the Tanzanian alternative.
In foreign policy, the Community is sharply divided : Rwanda and Kenya have signed the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union while Tanzania and Uganda are holding out, citing national interest. Burundi is under EU sanctions, and is presumably EPA-ineligible as a result. When the talks with the EU began, South Sudan was not a member of the bloc.
For reasons personal to Presidents Kenyatta and Nkurunziza, Kenya and Burundi do not like the International Criminal Court (ICC): Burundi has pulled out; Kenya threatens to pull out; Tanzania says it won’t pull out; Uganda attacks the Court but President Museveni has referred Joseph Kony and the high command of the Lord’s Resistance Army to the court — suggesting he is hot for one purpose and cold for another, as it suits him. Rwanda is not a member.

continued.... Time for EAC to lower its sights; throw out federation dream
 
when did UG and Rwanda pull out of the Kenyan rail...last I checked, Rwanda is weighing its options while Uganda is committed to the Northern Corridor route and plans for commencing Malaba-Kampala part are staged for later in the year....some news agencies' credentials are wanting...EAC must however remain strong...we all have our differences but we are better together than apart...its like saying the EU should be broken because member states have their own petty differences...this article is well-written but the writer's reasons for breaking EAC federation lack substance and weight..as a bloc we have a greater power to negtiate with much more developed countries...also, we attract more Foreign direct investment from investors who are eyeing the larger East African market rather than smaller markets in individual states...
 
when did UG and Rwanda pull out of the Kenyan rail...last I checked, Rwanda is weighing its options while Uganda is committed to the Northern Corridor route and plans for commencing Malaba-Kampala part are staged for later in the year....some news agencies' credentials are wanting...EAC must however remain strong...we all have our differences but we are better together than apart...its like saying the EU should be broken because member states have their own petty differences...this article is well-written but the writer's reasons for breaking EAC federation lack substance and weight..as a bloc we have a greater power to negtiate with much more developed countries...also, we attract more Foreign direct investment from investors who are eyeing the larger East African market rather than smaller markets in individual states...
the reference is specific to political federation... is it not possible to co-operate on the other issues without getting bogged down with a proposal that frankly doesn't look feasible anywhere in the near future? infact the article suggests preoccupation with a federation is hampering progress on other areas of cooperation.
 
The new was that Kenya is subbotaging the EAC, it is playing games with the federation. Till today, it has not send legislators to the EAC legislative assembly!

The other day, two Kenya Legislatures for the EAC were seen in Arusha. Before the assembly started its business, they were no where to be seen again??

Really?? Kenya needs to be serious because it stands to benefit more from the EAC than any other country
 
The new was that Kenya is subbotaging the EAC, it is playing games with the federation. Till today, it has not send legislators to the EAC legislative assembly!

The other day, two Kenya Legislatures for the EAC were seen in Arusha. Before the assembly started its business, they were no where to be seen again??

Really?? Kenya needs to be serious because it stands to benefit more from the EAC than any other country

You sabotaged the first EAC so nothing is new.
 
The last time it was Tanzania that had its inferiority fears not Kenya

Charles Njonjo and Jomo Kenyatta were instrumental in sabotaging the first EAC. Without Tanzania there would be no EAC, the idea of forming EAC came from Kambarage Nyerere.
 
I really don't know a lot of History, but for now, Kenya is playing games! I really wished EAC could see the light so that we can have a wider market for everyone!
 
I really don't know a lot of History, but for now, Kenya is playing games! I really wished EAC could see the light so that we can have a wider market for everyone!

Greedy Kenya wants to be the only beneficiary of the EAC.
 
The EAC as a federation would be the best thing that ever happened to its member states, but a lack of oversight and selfish tendencies of our 3rd world minded leaders will never let this happen.

Why would a Rwandan businessman not want to have unlevied access to Dar and Mombasa ports? Why would a Tanzanian commercial farmer not want to sell his produce untarrifed to the large Kenyan market? Why would a Kenyan maasai/luo not want to visit their kin in Tanzania without the strenuous and lengthy border checks? Why would a Ugandan wealthy man want to keep changing his currency at every border so as to enjoy a holiday in Zanzibar and the Mara? Why would a sane Burundian not want the more effective security forces of Rwanda or Uganda to end the calamity in Bujumbura?

The non-intergration notions are planted in EAC citizens by their egocentric leaders. Museveni doesn't want to loose his life presidency, The current Kenyan elite are afraid of a unified hence more powerful Kenyan+Tanzanian Luos and Kenyan+Ugandan Luhya and closely related gisu/Masaba. The Tanzanian elite are afraid that a unified EAC will halt their power monopoly, especially when its citizens see how Rwanda has made huge strides while they slept. Kagame is like Museveni though less hard minded while Nkurunzinza is worse than Museveni.

The benefits of a unified EAC far outweigh the risks
 
The new was that Kenya is subbotaging the EAC, it is playing games with the federation. Till today, it has not send legislators to the EAC legislative assembly!

The other day, two Kenya Legislatures for the EAC were seen in Arusha. Before the assembly started its business, they were no where to be seen again??

Really?? Kenya needs to be serious because it stands to benefit more from the EAC than any other country

You don't know the whole story... plus at least Kenya's legislators decided to totally avoid the assembly, some of the EAC countries blatantly walk out of the assembly in protest and you never see a headline. The quorum rules dictate that each nation has to be sufficiently represented for a law to be passed or vote to be taken, mind you some of them have walked out previously in protest of laws they find unfavorable and the quorum rules were adhered to... yet they tied to force the vote in absence of Kenyan legislators. We can't know why the legislators avoided the vote, maybe they just missed it, however it looks bad.

This one action should not be used to judge Kenya's commitment to the EAC.
I think Kenya is the most omitted to the integration agenda and our commitment has been abused.
How many times have other countries changed their minds on things we agreed on long time ago?
How many times have we allowed unfavorable policies for us to support trade in the EAC?
We have been punished so much for having the biggest economy in the region, and I know we need our neighbours but wanapenda kulambwa sana. How much can we laydown for them, and for how long?
 
We haven't even reached that stage yet and we are already blaming it for all our woes.....SMH.
Consolidating the economic nion doesn't have to come at the expense of the political federation.
 
Lol! EAC tuna kazi kweli kweli!

Na pengine niseme ushindani uliopo miongoni mwa nchi hizi, na baadhi ya historia mbaya miongoni mwa mataifa wanachama vinabidi vishughulikiwe na nchi yenyewe ielewe ni kwa nini wapo EAC!

Kwa mfano, mwezi March 2017, baadhi ya wabunge wa EALA kutoka nchi ya Burundi hasa wale wa chama cha CNDD-FDD hawakuudhulia vikao vya kawaida vya bunge hilo, kwa kile tu walichodai hawakuwa na uhakika na usalama wao, wakati wabunge wengine wa vyama vya upinzani Burundi wakihudhuria!

Hivi tunawezaje kuwa na jumuiya ambayo watu wa nchi moja hawana uhakika na usalama wao kwenye nchi nyingine mwanachama? masuala kama haya inabidi yashughulikiwe ili hizi chuki binafsi miongoni mwa nchi wanachama ziishe!

Ni ukweli usiopingika kuwa jumuiya hii inahitajika na manufaa yake ni makubwa! Ni bora tuwe na mashindano ya kimaendeleo kama yaliyopo tz na kenya kuliko figisu hizi za ajabu ajabu!
 
Lol! EAC tuna kazi kweli kweli!

Na pengine niseme ushindani uliopo miongoni mwa nchi hizi, na baadhi ya historia mbaya miongoni mwa mataifa wanachama vinabidi vishughulikiwe na nchi yenyewe ielewe ni kwa nini wapo EAC!

Kwa mfano, mwezi March 2017, baadhi ya wabunge wa EALA kutoka nchi ya Burundi hasa wale wa chama cha CNDD-FDD hawakuudhulia vikao vya kawaida vya bunge hilo, kwa kile tu walichodai hawakuwa na uhakika na usalama wao, wakati wabunge wengine wa vyama vya upinzani Burundi wakihudhuria!

Hivi tunawezaje kuwa na jumuiya ambayo watu wa nchi moja hawana uhakika na usalama wao kwenye nchi nyingine mwanachama? masuala kama haya inabidi yashughulikiwe ili hizi chuki binafsi miongoni mwa nchi wanachama ziishe!

Ni ukweli usiopingika kuwa jumuiya hii inahitajika na manufaa yake ni makubwa! Ni bora tuwe na mashindano ya kimaendeleo kama yaliyopo tz na kenya kuliko figisu hizi za ajabu ajabu!
Em chukua ya baridi hapo nitakuja kulipa!
 
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