Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya (left), Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of
Uganda, and Paul Kagame of Rwanda shortly after they signed the Protocol
on the Establishment of the East African Monetary Union at Speke Bay
Resort Munyonyo in Kampala recently. The three presidents were behind
what came to be known as the Coalition of the Willing within the EAC
block. PHOTO|FILE
By Zephania Ubwani,The Citizen Bureau Chief
In Summary
- Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are linked by the northern transport corridor; from the port of Mombasa through to Nairobi and Kampala all the way to Kigali
Arusha. It was yet another
challenging year for the East African Community, a regional bloc of five
member states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.
In the past, the nagging problems had been the
slow speed with which the member countries jointly or individually took
in the implementation of what had been agreed upon and signed by all
parties.
This was not the case for 2013. It is the year
that for the first time saw the bloc, which was revived in the 1990s
after the first one collapsed in 1977, starting to develop cracks which,
in essence, threatened its survival.
The trouble, if some analysts would call it that,
started in the middle of the year with the coming onto the scene by the
Coalition of the Willing (CoW), an alliance of three member countries;
Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. The trio came together ostensibly to
fast-track regional projects which they thought were delayed by the
heavy bureaucracy within the EAC and some member countries they accused
of being “not serious with regional integration issues.”
The new developments took the Arusha-based EAC by
surprise. It was immediately after the first summit of Uganda, Rwanda
and Tanzania hosted by President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe, that left
the Arusha bureaucrats guessing. Neither the secretary general nor the
directorate of information, known for a chain of well-crafted press
releases, could say anything on an event the Community should have
played a role.
Initially, some observers thought it was one of
those summits for which one or two regional leaders or country could
miss for one reason or another. There is nothing strange about that.
Some presidents have skipped summits in succession without any eyebrows
being raised.
During their Entebbe summit at the end of June,
Presidents Museveni, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya,
pledged their commitment to regional integration, particularly in the
development of infrastructure.
At face value, one could not have been surprised
by the meeting. The three countries are linked by what is called the
northern transport corridor; from the port of Mombasa through to Nairobi
and Kampala all the way to Kigali and beyond.
In some way, the new partnership had also been
caused by new developments such as the dredging of the port of Lamu and
its proposed road and railway links with the hinterland, the coming onto
the scene of the oil-rich South Sudan and the new oil wells in Uganda.
Conspicuous absentees to the summit were Tanzania
and Burundi. Then came another summit of the triumvirate in Mombasa two
months later (end of August). With the latter, it was as if the EAC or
rather the harmony that had existed among the five countries, was coming
to an end. Two members of the bloc; Tanzania and Rwanda were already at
loggerheads on a number of issues, one among them the expulsion of
Rwandese (and other people from other countries) who had no proper
documents while living in Tanzania.
Authorities in Kigali took the issue seriously,
although their government did not retaliate. It was a kind of ‘war of
words’ between the media of the two neighbouring countries which had
everybody worried about the strained relations.
Back to Mombasa. The summit agreed on the
construction of a standard gauge railway line from Mombasa that would
link the three countries, and possibly South Sudan as well as pipelines
from Uganda and South Sudan oil fields to the markets; be they within
eastern Africa or elsewhere
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