Happy birthday: EAC marches on under a new flag

He said the region lost 20 years of progress as the original three countries went their separate ways in air transport, harbours, railways, lakes, posts and telecommunications, among other defunct regional institutions.

Of the original shared bodies, only three survived the 1977 break up — the East African Development Bank, the Inter University Council of East Africa and the Lake Victoria Basin Commission. 

Nostalgically, he said: “We could have been the most powerful economic bloc in the world considering that we had a union in 1967, well before anyone else.”

In those days, said the secretary general, EAC had centres of excellence, especially in medical research, dealing with tropical diseases that are today a challenge to the Millennium Development Goals.

One such facility, the East African Institute for Medical Research, was based at Usambara in Tanzania.

It brought together a critical mass in research capability, where cutting-edge PhD work in malaria and vector borne diseases research was carried out.

Indeed, according to Mr Mwapachu, the region’s research capacity was second to none and although good work continued nationally (with the facility renamed the National Institute for Medical Research) its status was lost.

Also lost was the hitherto world famous regional Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, based in Tanzania.

Its demise is to blame for today’s up to 50 per cent post-harvest losses, turning the region into a hunger zone. 

“The facility was totally rundown,” said Mr Mwapachu

He also cited the region’s airline industry as a glaring example of lost integration opportunities, saying the bloc should have one airline called the East African Airways.

“Air Tanzania collapsed, Air Uganda is rudimentary, though we have a robust world class Kenya Airways with international networks with KLM.”

Mr Mwapachu said that despite the notable achievements of the past 10 years, the region is yet to achieve a collective grasp of the bigger picture, which remains the real challenge — developing an East African consciousness.

Citing the old University of East Africa, Mr Mwapachu said it was a classic example of regionalisation.

The universities of Makerere, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were its constituent colleges.