As he passes the baton of the leadership of the EAC to Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, and soon that of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa to DR Congo’s President Joseph Kabila, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who over the past 12 months has been chair of three regional bodies, has largely delivered on his promise to move forward the integration and stability of the region.

President Museveni is also chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) that has been mediating the North Kivu conflict between the Kinshasa government and the M23 rebels.

In many respects, this mediation is the only blot on his copybook as nothing came of the long running peace talks, and, in the end, it took a SADC-leaning international force comprising troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi to intervene to end this conflict.

President Museveni hands over the Comesa chair in February 2014 to President Kabila, who hosts the next summit. Initially planned to take place in December this year, the Comesa summit was moved to next year as it clashed with the forthcoming summit of the ICGLR.

As Comesa chair, Museveni is credited with continuously engaging the EAC and the South African Development Community to speed up the proposed Free Trade Area of the three regional economic communities that will bring together 27 states in what could become Africa’s biggest bloc, straddling the continent from Cape to Cairo — a market with a combined gross domestic product of over $630 billion.

“There have been continued negotiations with other blocs on the tripartite Free Trade Area. So far, they have finalised the regulations on non-tariff barriers, in order to boost inter-regional trade. The simplified trade regime incorporates informal trade and provides dignity and incentives to small-scale traders in the informal sector,” said Mwangi Gakunga, Comesa public relations chief.

The buzz when Museveni assumed the Comesa chair, and that of the EAC a week later in November 2012, was that he wanted to find a formula to fund small-scale traders and bring them into the mainstream.

Museveni’s stint as chair of both Comesa and EAC has coincided with the injection of $70 million into Comesa’s PTA Bank by the African Development Bank.

This money, approved on October 2 this year, consists of two tranches — a $20 million financial package, which is AfDB’s additional equity in PTA Bank, and a $50 million line of credit to be used to finance small and medium enterprises as well as regional infrastructure projects.

Again, more resources have come in to support integration efforts during Museveni’s tenure as chairman. In November, for instance, Comesa received $8.5 million from AfDB to support the capacity building programme of the tripartite bloc and the Comesa Trading for Peace project.

Uganda’s Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde, who is also the current Comesa Council of Ministers chair, confirms that there has been a push by member states to prioritise investment in infrastructure projects in both private and public sectors based on a blueprint by a high-level infrastructure conference held in Kampala on September 14. What is lacking however, are the resources to fund this infrastructure.

“This is an effort to strengthen inter-regional interconnectivity, encourage more regional trade and ultimately increase intra-continental trade,” Ms Kyambadde said.

For Comesa, the focus on small-scale enterprises was born out of the realisation that they are key drivers of many economies in East, Central and Southern African countries in terms of generating revenues and employment.

But also, as EAC chair, Museveni is seen as the face of a new reconfiguration of the bloc comprising Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda termed the “Coalition of the Willing.”

Officially, the leaders who came together in Entebbe in June say this is an effort to fast-track infrastructure projects along the Northern Corridor rather than a breakaway of the three partner states that could threaten the EAC integration agenda.

International relations lecturer at Makerere University Dr Philip Kasaija says this should be seen as such, and Museveni has actually “done well” as EAC chair.

For instance, as he hands over the chair to President Kenyatta, Museveni has overseen the conclusion of negotiations for the EAC Monetary Union, whose protocol was expected to be inked at the November 30 Summit in Kampala.

However, there has been some disquiet over the assumption of President Kenyatta to the chairmanship of the regional body, just a year after his predecessor Mwai Kibaki left the seat.

Richard Sezibera, the EAC secretary General defended the passing over of the baton to Kenya, saying the treaty only indicates that the chairmanship should be rotational but it does not explain how and in the event that one partner state is not ready what should happen.

“In 2008, Rwanda’s term was extended by six months and afterwards the chairmanship went to Tanzania instead of Burundi,”  he said.

Two weeks ago, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs minister, Louise Mushikiwabo said a crowded domestic schedule prompted discussions to have another country hold the rotational chair.

The decision that Kigali forfeits its turn in favour of Kenya was reportedly to offer Mr Kenyatta clout  in the ongoing political and diplomatic lobbying for the deferral of his International Criminal Court trial.