The East African Legislative Assembly Members Tanzania chapter has refuted claims that the country is dragging its feet on regional integration.

Tanzania has repeatedly been accused of frustrating the integration process, with speculation that this may have led to it being left out of recent meetings where regional leaders have discussed key proposals to improve regional infrastructure and deepen integration. Tanzania was the only EAC member state that was not invited to these meetings.

(Read: Test of unity for EAC as Tanzania is isolated)

The first meeting in Entebbe in June, brought together President Museveni of Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

The second one, in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa last week, had the same cast of leaders, with Burundi and South Sudan sending ministerial delegations.

Among other things, the Mombasa meeting passed a declaration to fast track the East African political federation in the absence of Tanzania, which analysts say highlights a clear move to break away from the laborious consensus model of the EAC to one where there is a “leading tendency of the willing.”

Last week, the chairman of EALA Members Tanzania chapter, Adam Kimbisa, said in Dar es Salaam that those accusing Tanzania of dragging its feet on integration are deliberately misleading the public in the region.

(Read: Why Tanzania drags its feet in the EAC)
According to Mr Kimbisa, Tanzania has not rejected any integration proposal without giving reasons, and it was surprising that those accusing the country of being anti-integration failed to accompany their accusations with the reasons advanced by Tanzania.

“The major thing behind this accusation is Tanzania’s refusal to have land included in Community matters. As it stands, land remains a private affair of each member state, but Bills have been unscrupulously drafted including land that Tanzania has repeatedly rejected,” he said.

As a result, he added, Tanzania is now being accused of being anti-integration, while the fact is that the country is willing to integrate on all matters except land.

The sentiments expressed by Mr Kimbisa provide a window into the thinking of Tanzania’s leadership regarding the contentious issue of regional integration.

Giving examples, Mr Kimbisa said Tanzania has donated free land to EAC to build its headquarters in Arusha, a clear indication that the country is for integration, contrary to allegations levelled against it.

Tanzania is also accused of being slow in decision making on integration issues while the truth, according to Mr Kimbisa, is that the country is being very careful before committing itself to anything based on experience from the break-up of the first community.

“When the first East African Community broke up in 1977, it was Tanzania that suffered the most. Once bitten, twice shy. We cannot allow ourselves to repeat same mistakes. We therefore have to scrutinise every detail before committing ourselves to anything on integration,” he said.

Covering nearly a million square kilometres, Tanzania accounts for 51 per cent of the total land area in the EAC. However, the country only accounts for 38 per cent of land under agriculture in the region, holding the greatest fraction of arable but unused land in the region — an estimated 380,000 square kilometres.

By comparison, Kenya, the second largest, accounts for 32 per cent of the total land area in the EAC, but 45 per cent of the land under agriculture.

The UN Population Division projects that the EAC’s population will balloon from the current 150 million to 270 million by 2030. The region will therefore have to turn to Tanzania as it looks to feed its growing population.