What were your biggest achievements during your term?

The East African Community is now a Single Customs Territory. Non-tariff barriers along our major corridors have been reduced; intra-EAC trade has grown to 26 per cent of the total from less than 10 per cent a decade ago. The free movement of persons and labour under the Common Market has also picked up.

We launched the use of national identity cards as travel documents across borders while the recent 17th Heads of State Summit launched an International East African Passport.

The region now has a prioritised infrastructure plan and investment strategy in railways, energy, ports and harbours, inland waterways and ICT. The Summit now holds infrastructure summits every two years to review progress.

We have developed an industrialisation policy with prioritised sectors, which is under implementation.
The EAC has agreed on a Vision 2050, aiming to turn it into an upper middle-income region by that year, with a per capita income of over $10,000.

The people of East Africa have increasingly become key players in the integration agenda; new institutions are onboard including the East African Science and Technology Commission, the East African Health Research Commission and the East African Kiswahili Commission.

We have strengthened and automated internal governance systems and reached an agreement on an institutional review of EAC organs and institutions that had been pending for a decade. Finally, the Community has expanded with the admission of South Sudan as a new member.

Any challenges?

The only strategic threat I see is the lack of focus or a narrow focus on nationalistic agendas. Domestication of decisions made at the regional level is sometimes slow. This has delayed the full implementation of the Common Market Protocol.

But as the integration agenda deepens, the EAC will have to design mechanisms for faster, cost-effective decision making, pool partner states’ sovereignty into central entities with the capacity to drive the agenda, and agree on a sustainable financing mechanism.

Non-tariff barriers are still a challenge to trade in the region. How should they be tackled?

Unlike other challenges, NTBs are technical but they can be resolved. The thing about NTBs is that you eliminate one only for it to be replaced by another. The most important thing, however, is to focus on the bigger picture, and build capacity for execution.

Political will is key. Many of these bottlenecks, including the removal of roadblocks, rationalisation of weighbridges and streamlining bureaucracy do not require heavy investments, just political will.

The EAC Secretariat has established a time-bound programme for the elimination of NTBs; it is being implemented in close collaboration with partner states.

If you were to start all over again, what would you do differently?

I have no regrets; but I hasten to add that integration requires concerted action by all leaders and stakeholders. It can never at any time be the work of an individual. I have been privileged to work with a regional leadership focused on ensuring that the people of East Africa reap the fruits of the integration.

Two years ago, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda appeared to be acting outside the ambit of the EAC with their so-called Coalition of the Willing (CoW), especially on infrastructure projects like the standard gauge railway, while Tanzania and Burundi appeared isolated. Has this rift been healed?

I don’t know what you mean by Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda acting outside the ambit of the EAC. I reject the notion of a Coalition of the Willing or CoW as you prefer to call it. This CoW is a creation of you, the media.

In 2004, a Special EAC Summit of Heads of State decided to fasttrack all phases of the integration agenda.

Through variable geometry, our partner states singly, or in association with others, can choose to fast-track the implementation of agreed projects. That has happened on the Northern Corridor with remarkable success. It is now happening on the Central Corridor, and I expect it to happen on the other eight corridors within the EAC.

In fact, the standard gauge railway is being laid on the Northern Corridor and soon there will be another on the Central Corridor. Power interconnectors, pipeline projects, and the free movement of people provisions of our Common Market Protocol are being fasttracked. How can one argue with this progress? We can only look for ways to accelerate progress on all our corridors.

The EAC recently admitted South Sudan — which in many ways is a dysfunctional state — into the economic bloc. Is this a case of overlooking admission criteria?

First of all, South Sudan is a young country, at the beginning of building a viable state. This is a challenging process and any dysfunctions must surely be seen as a difficult post-partum period. The people of East Africa stood with the people of South Sudan during their prolonged labour pains, they were there at the birth of the new state, and they should be there in this new period. That is the bigger picture.

Article 3(3) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community clearly spells out criteria for admission of new members to the Community, and South Sudan met the threshold for admission. This does not necessarily mean that it meets all criteria.

South Sudan applied for EAC membership soon after gaining its Independence in 2011. The application was considered on an accelerated basis and the country has now been granted admission but there are a number of steps South Sudan must take in order to effectively participate in the Community. For example, it will take three years for South Sudan to be ready to join the Customs Union.

The young nation’s entry means that our region is a bigger market with increased potential for growth for its 160 million citizens. The move will promote business and general economic development as well as African Unity.
One of the EAC’s failures, critics argue, is its apparent unwillingness to get involved in correcting political wrongs in the region, like what is going on in Burundi. They aver that the economic solutions it seeks cannot be achieved independent of political peace, and cite blocs like Ecowas as having been more active on this front.

EAC has faced a number of challenges, including election related violence in Kenya in 2007, terrorism, as well as the crisis in Burundi. My thoughts are with the people of Burundi who have been killed, maimed, orphaned or been forced to flee their homeland.

Clearly all of us could have done better, earlier. However, we need to continue to try to help find a solution to the challenges Burundi faces. The Burundi conflict is high on the agenda of the EAC and it is being handled by the Summit, which appointed Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni as the mediator.

At their 17th Ordinary Meeting held on March 2, the Summit also appointed Benjamin Mkapa, former president of Tanzania, to help in the mediation. I trust that a solution will be found and that the country will return to normalcy soon. 

The EAC has also been accused of creating an expensive bureaucracy in Arusha and through associated organisations, without attendant benefits for the citizens of EAC.

Integration is an expensive process but its benefits far outweigh its costs. It also involves constant consensus building. The Community has a number of organs and institutions to lead its ambitious integration agenda. More institutions will be created to manage a deepened integration agenda, especially as we implement the Monetary Union Protocol.

The challenge is, therefore, how we can finance our ambitious agenda and remove reliance on external partners. This matter is before the Summit, which has directed the Council of Ministers to conclude the longstanding Sustainable Financing Mechanism for the Community this year.

Of course we must also constantly evaluate the way we use the scarce resources available. In 2011, I made proposals to the Council of Ministers on how we can streamline our decision-making process to make it faster, more nimble and more cost effective. Those proposals were not accepted then but I tabled them again, and this time, the Council has asked the permanent/principal secretaries to sit with management and examine them. A number of partner states are now increasingly aware that changes need to be made, and I welcome this.

For example, we now have installed state-of-the-art video conference facilities at the Secretariat, and in the partner states’ ministries responsible for EAC Affairs. This has already eliminated the need for most physical meetings. Over the past five years, we have strengthened and automated governance systems across all our organs and institutions. We are no longer a paper-dependent organisation. Our accountability mechanisms are more robust.

For the first time, staff who have misappropriated resources or who have exhibited unethical behaviour have been brought to the Council of Ministers for disciplinary action. In as far as actions taken so far is concerned, there is room for improvement.

We have also introduced risk management culture institutions, established conflict of interest and whistleblower policies, worked with the Audit Commission and the relevant committees of the East African Legislative Assembly to strengthen their role. Year after year, these reforms have borne fruit.

I can confidently say that the resources of the Community are managed prudently. We have made sure they are spent as budgeted for by the Council of Ministers and appropriated by EALA. Weaknesses identified by the Audit Commission, internal audits, as well as external audits have been addressed on a continuous basis. This work needs to continue. We need to constantly ask ourselves whether we are doing the right things right. I welcome continued debate by the people of East Africa in this area.

What is your plan post-EAC?

I am going Home. I am an East African of Rwandan origin and I am excited to be going back home after five years of service to East Africa. As the saying goes, East West, home is best!