The
East Africa Community is a logical step forward for its member states and is
probably the best thing that has happened to the region since the independence
of the individual member states from colonialism. When the three original
partner states; Kenya, Uganda and the Tanzania signed the treaty that brought
fourth the East African Community on 30TH November 1999 and its
subsequent coming to force on 7th July 2000, they brought into being
an entity that was both; novel and a requisite of the times. The formation of
the East African Community was a prudent decision, informed both by history and
reason. For as evident suggests, integration amongst the peoples and communities
within the boarders of Eastern Africa Community predated pre-colonial history.
A
peep through history shows us that the East African Community has been one
region, after all the indigenous populace within the EAC share common ancestral
history. History also shows that there was a fluidity that
characterized movement of goods and people within the EAC region especially before
the advent of colonialism, well apart from wild game and terrain there was no
form of state or state infrastructure that specifically prohibited people and
goods from moving around, trading or any other form of interaction for that,
matter. It was the partition of Africa into formalized states that put
artificial strains to the natural order of free movement in Africa and the
Eastern Africa region for that matter. It was this free movement of goods and
people that attracted the; the Chinese, the Arabs and layer the Europeans to
the East African coast, knowing to well that they could access goods sourced
from the rich East African hinterland with relative ease.
“the balkanization of Africa into 53, mostly
sub-optimal states, has meant that Africa cannot have a large market under one Political
Authority; have no power to negotiate with the rest of the world, This
balkanization must stop,”
The
EAC has tried to re-establish that free movement of people and goods. That unbridled exchange of goods and movement
of goods was an anchor of pre-colonial society in the Eastern Africa region
which had a developed market systems well before the colonialists came.
Increased intra-regional trade has been beneficial in lowering the rate of
inflation as the cost of key consumables especially food has come down substantially.
This in effect means that we might have within ourselves the solutions to
perennial and potentially debilitating problems like, famine for Kenya
especially taking into consideration that Kenya’s neighbor Uganda is not as
food poor as Kenya.
I
say the EAC is a necessity of the times now more than ever because the global
economic climate teeters on uncertainty and the 2008 global economic meltdown
amplifies this fact. The EAC provides an adequate regional market that somewhat
makes the countries in the block insular to global economic shocks yet allows
them to sensibly enjoy the fruits of globalization. Indeed the benign lesson
from the global financial meltdown for the developing world and particularly
Africa for that matter is that Africa cannot continue relying on Western
economies and western consumers as sole target markets for Africa. As such the
EAC is timely in that it provides a large regional market, giving producers in
the region multiple choices.
The
EAC also provides an opportunity for the countries to deal with common problems
like security. The region deals with shared threats, Burundi and Uganda have contributed
to Amisom peace keeping force in Somalia in their quest to exterminate the
Al-shabab terrorism threat, which poses a threat to regional stability.
The
EAC has been involved in strengthening the governments of neighboring fragile
countries and institutions and of neighboring countries in an effort of to improve
the security situations in these countries and generally prevent the insecurity
from spilling over into the region.
Although
the countries within the EAC are culturally homogenous, the advent of a new
identity, i.e identifying oneself as an; ‘East African’ might help push the
issues such as ethnicity to the periphery. A new identity for the citizens
within the EAC community is desirable; it could heal the fissures of ethnicity that
have in past bogged down our development to the pinnacle of economic and human
development.
The
EAC also gives the members states a platform for collective bargaining; it
allows the member countries to have the wherewithal to extract more from multi-lateral
negotiations and trade agreements. As President Yoweri Museveni once said,
The EAC has also
ushered in a new age of seamless travel of goods and people within the region.
This coupled with myriads of other measures taken to ensure that non-tariff
barriers to trade are reduced to the bare minimum means that goods and services
will become less expensive, not to mention the development of physical
infrastructure that has accompanied the integration process.
The EAC will also help
to eliminate issues such as corruption. Since corruption in any of these
countries tends to increase the cost of doing business, individual member states, citizens and other
non-state entities will and have already started clamouring for transparency
and a zero tolerance towards corruption especially on the transits within the
region. Good and efficient and governance within the region might also get
realised as countries within the region need to subscribe to a higher governance
culture. This in essence means that citizens within these countries should
expect better service delivery from their government and other core institutions
within the regions.
The East African
Community provides a unique opportunity for the countries within the region to
approach the future with a sure footing. The countries within the region can
enjoy the benefits of globalization with the comfortable auspice of the East
African Community that hedges them from unfavourable global market
environments. It is also my sincere hope that overtures will be made to rope in
new members like the new nation of South Sudan into the community, for the
reason of enlargement and diversification of the market.
These are just but a few of the innumerable benefits of the East African Community, which
have already been realized or will be realized as we move into a bright and hopeful
future.
