NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 25 — Four East African Community (EAC) Member States yet to finalize national consultations of a proposed political confederation for the bloc have until May 30 to do so.
EAC Heads of State announced the new timeline on Friday at the conclusion of the bloc’s 23rd Ordinary Summit hosted by President Samia Suluhu in Arusha Tanzania.
“The Summit considered the progress report on the consultations on EAC political confederation and (d) Urged the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of South Sudan, the Republic of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to conclude the consultations Process by 30 May 2024,” a communique issued by the Summit read.
While asking Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC to expedite national consultations, the Summit also appealed to to States yet to submit names of constitutional experts to a panel drafting the blocs constitution to do so by December 31, 2023.
The Heads of State commended progress made by a panel of experts that has already conducted public engagements in Kenya, Uganda and Burundi.
The Summit also lauded Kenya and Uganda for providing additional budgetary support to the consultation process even as South Sudan pledged to contribute USD500,000.
Tanzania expressed its commitment to support the process, the Summit said.
Committee of Experts
Kenya concluded twenty-day consultations for a draft constitution of the proposed confederation in June during which a majority of the Kenyans who presented memoranda expressed support for the federation.
President William Ruto, while meeting constitutional experts spearheading the process, who include former Attorney General Amos Wako and former Chief Justice of Uganda Benjamin Odok, urged the team to expedite the process and present a draft constitution by June 2024.
He pledged an additional USD1 million to help expedite the process saying East Africans yearned for elimination limitations posed by national boundaries.
“The EAC Partner States should therefore endeavor to catch up with them [East Africans] and actualize the political confederation as fast as possible,” President Ruto told the experts in June.
The committee of experts was set to proceed to Tanzania followed by Rwanda.
President Ruto has been at the forefront rooting for a political confederation since assuming office in September 2022, joining his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in voicing public support for a regional federation.
While delivering his inaugural Mashujaa Day speech in 2022, Ruto revisited the discourse on a regional federation for the second time in under two weeks, reiterating his position on the need to expedite efforts towards the full integration of EAC.
‘Rigid borders’
He told Kenyans “rigid territorial borders are firmly on the way out, as we move towards full integration.”
President Ruto had made similar remarks in Uganda on October 9, 2022 when he attended the country’s independence day celebrations at the invitation of President Museveni, urging the Ugandan leader to lead regional efforts on the matter.
“Mzee Museveni is our elder; we have tremendous respect for him and we look up to him to work so that we can eliminate the borders that separate our people in East Africa and in Africa,” he said in an address delivered at Kololo Grounds.
Other than Kenya and Uganda, the five other EAC Member States rarely endorsed a political federation, the fourth and final pillar in regional integration after monetary union, the third pillar, which is also yet to be attained.
Increased integration
The region has however made significant progress on the two other pillars of customs union and common market.
While revisiting the matter on October 20, 2022 at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, Ruto said EAC must strive to progressively remove non-tariff barriers to promote trade among Member States.
He cited progress in the areas of trade and joint infrastructure projects among interventions that had given fresh impetus to increased integration.
“The possibility of an East African Federation is no longer a wild imagination or an idle dream. It is no longer a matter of if, it is a matter of when,” Ruto said.
Challenging countries in the region to commit to “sharing prosperity as opposed to sharing poverty”, President Ruto also quoted Safaricom’s recent launch in Ethiopia, which is not an EAC member, as testament to growing intra-African which the 7-member block can build on.
“In Ethiopia, we launched Safaricom Ethiopia telecoms’ money business, which
expanded Safaricom and Mpesa’s regional footprint, dispersing ICT innovation and deepening the revenue base of the company. Simultaneously, Safaricom became the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia, and Kenya’s biggest foreign investor abroad.”
Ruto said Kenya alongside Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda had become “a close-knit neighbourhood, and everyone’s well-being has become everybody’s business.”
“With unity and integration, we will achieve much in our lifetime,” he said, adding that “these bonds of solidarity and fraternity, we shall establish an oasis of hope and infinite possibility that will be irresistible to the whole world.”
