Signing of EA Common Market the highlight of 10 years of integration

The signing of the East African Community Common Market in November was probably the biggest event in the history of the regional bloc.

It coincided with celebrations to mark 10 years since the three original members revived the integration process, and was praised as the clearest indication yet that there was no turning back.

Secretary General Juma Mwapachu said the Common Market was a defining moment, being the cornerstone of integration, as it paved the way for other key phases.

Within the order of the EAC integration, these are the Common Market (2009), the Monetary Union (2012) and the Political Federation (2015).
Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania) and Abeid Amani Karume (Zanzibar) signed the Common Market Protocol in Arusha, Tanzania, bringing to an end months of waiting and anxiety.
Contentious issues nearly derailed the negotiations and the signing was pushed to November from April.

At the colourful ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary, the chair of the outgoing EAC Council of Ministers, Monique Mukaruliza, urged partner states to expedite the ratification of the Common Market at national level by the scheduled July 1, 2010 date.Also present were the regional integration forums and officials such as the attorneys-general, trade ministers, chief justices, permanent secretaries and EAC ministers and their deputies.

The occasion was Arusha’s largest gathering of delegates and visitors last year. At the ceremony, President Kagame handed over the Summit chair to President Kikwete, who pleaded with his countrymen to embrace regional integration.

He assured them that there was no basis for the common fear that Kenya would swallow up their weaker economy. President Kagame said the protocol was a big step forward for the EAC and attested to its shedding of colonial boundaries and individualism and embracing of globalisation.
The Heads of State gave a deadline of six months for a detailed report on the timelines of the federation.

A Committee of Experts was to be formed immediately and terms of reference drawn to speed up the process.

Among other things, the process entails a massive sensitisation campaign among East Africans.

Also to be handled by the team is identification of the best means to deal with the myriad challenges facing the federation. The greatest of these challenges is the fear of losing national sovereignty.

As if to crown the ceremony, President Museveni asked East Africans to own his country’s new-found oil wealth, which he described as a big blessing to the bloc. He said he would discuss with the heads of state the modalities of sharing the wealth, attracting loud applause from the delegates.

President Museveni said Uganda is yet to start harvesting the oil and wants to put together a regional technical team to avoid being exploited by external investors who have been trooping to the country seeking drilling rights.

He said that a team of technicians whom the country trained to build a databank of oil experts had disclosed that there could be more oil west of the Rift Valley.

Develop own manpower

President Museveni challenged the region to develop its own manpower, saying that certain forces are out to exploit it in the guise of foreign expertise.A new song that was to accompany the hoisting of the region’s new flag never saw the light of day as the presidents referred it back to the composers for fine tuning.

Mr Mwapachu said the community had made rapid strides towards integration, surprising even the world’s biggest regional bloc — the European Union. The EU took more than 40 years to get where “we are in just 10 years”.

The presidents also laid the foundation stone for the EAC headquarters building in Arusha.

In Africa, only the EAC is close to achieving a Monetary Union, while achieving a Political Federation in 2015 will put East Africa ahead of the EU.
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.