Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is expected to launch the East African Community constitution-making process in Kampala on August 19, setting the pace for the attainment of the bloc’s fourth and last integration pillar — political federation.

However, the region has decided to start with a political confederation. At the 20th Ordinary Summit in Arusha in February, the EAC heads of state asked President Museveni to oversee and provide political guidance to the legal experts tasked with the drafting of the Confederation Constitution.

The EAC in May 2017, adopted the Political Confederation as a transitional model ahead of the envisaged last pillar of integration.

The Confederation Constitution requires the EAC partner states to agree on areas to co-ordinate centrally, including trade and foreign policy, while other areas will be conducted by respective national governments.

Each EAC partner state nominated two constitution drafting experts and a draftsman, making a team of 18.

The constitution experts met for the first time in Arusha in September 2018, without their counterparts from Tanzania, to agree on terms of reference and a roadmap.

The committee has spent about a year consulting partner states ahead of the drafting of the constitution.

Tanzania’s failure to name its experts to the committee called to question the country’s commitment to the integration agenda, as the Treaty Establishing the EAC stipulates that the committee should not proceed without participation of one partner state.