To make EAC strong, give the Secretariat teeth

There is a school of thought that says partner states should cede more power to the Secretariat to enable it to make key decisions. How much power does your office enjoy?

One of the frustrations I have come across as Secretary General has been the centring of decision-making authority on the partner states.

This is, of course, through the various structural meetings between our officials, our permanent secretaries and the ministers.

When you go into, say, a controversial election — for example when Kenya went into the December 2007 polls and violence ensued, a long period of inactivity follows. In Kenya’s case, it was more than six months.

Meetings were not taking place in Arusha on key matters. Why? Because decisions are made by consensus. And, therefore, when you don’t have one partner state attending, no decision can be made.

Next year, Burundi will have a general election; Rwanda will hold presidential polls and Tanzania will conduct elections.

From about June next year to November, the operations of the EAC could grind to a halt. The EAC will be like a bureaucracy, merely managing its affairs.

Now, if you don’t give the EAC Secretariat more authority to deal with situations of that nature — where there is a state of flux — you could end up with no decisions being made.

The solution, really, is for partner states to realise that they need to cede more authority, the way the European Union did.

In fact, under the Treaty of Lisbon — and Ireland has now voted yes — more authority will be given to the European Commission in Brussels. That kind of thing should be happening within the EAC.

Is it something you have impressed on the partner states?

We have. Under the Common Market Protocol, there are proposals have been made. This is something that we are now going into.

It should be the institutional arrangement that drives the Common Market?

And, of course, there are proposals that the Secretariat should be reconstituted into a Commission with more decision making powers.

That may mean sharing more authority between the Secretariat, or between the Executive — which means the Council and the [East African] Legislative Assembly.