You wouldn’t know that Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda are
under legal obligation to ensure that their people, goods, services and
capital move freely. PHOTO FILE | NATION
If you were a tourist visiting East Africa for the first time,
you wouldn’t know that all the five neighbouring countries freely agreed
to economically integrate and eventually form a political federation.
You
wouldn’t, for example know that Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and
Rwanda are under legal obligation to ensure that their people, goods,
services and capital move freely within the region.
And
where differences crop up, as is inevitable in such relationships, one
would have expected that all members would pursue the policy of “do no
harm.”
Yet today, evidence shows that some EAC members are involved in acts that directly harm integration.
To
capture the state of matters in the EAC, a friend recently wisecracked
on social media that, “Even EAC cows are having it rough”!
This was in reference to cows belonging to Kenyan herders, which Tanzanian authorities auctioned off.
And as The EastAfrican
reported, the action wasn’t the work of a rogue low-ranking official
because President John Magufuli is quoted as saying that, “Tanzania is not a feeding farm for animals from other countries.”
In total, 1,300 cows were auctioned and 6,400 chicks imported from Kenya burnt on suspicion of carrying bird flu.
As would be expected, Kenyan officials were enraged, with the Daily Nation
reporting on November 7 that they protested “a policy shift that
condones hostile actions against Kenyan citizens and their business
interests.”
Meanwhile, Tanzania Minister of Livestock
and Fisheries reportedly told parliament that a further 10,000 Rwandan
and Ugandan cows would also be auctioned.
Yet, these action aren’t isolated
Uganda
arrested 17 Kenyan fishermen for what it termed “illegal” fishing in
Lake Victoria on November 7. The two countries have also been at
loggerheads over Migingo Island in Lake Victoria.
To
East Africans these actions aren’t only contrary to the higher purpose
of integration, but ahistorical since, for centuries, the Maasai
community (whose cows were auctioned) have freely grazed their animals
across borders.
Besides these “smaller” issues, there are also bigger questions undermining integration.
For
example, the Burundi crisis sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s
third term bid saw a rift develop between Rwanda and Burundi after
Bujumbura accused Kigali of meddling.
Burundi also
blocked business transactions through its northern border, including
banning buses travelling the daily Kampala-Kigali-Bujumbura route.
Then
there is Rwanda and Uganda. Despite strong cultural and historical
bonds, apparently, all isn’t well between these two nations.
According
to media reports, there are a number of issues that are fuelling the
strained relations between the two countries including the recent arrest
of a number of senior Ugandan police officers on allegations of kidnaping a Rwandan dissident in 2013 and handing him over to Kigali.
While
member states engage in behaviour that goes against the region’s goals
for integration, the EAC Secretariat has fallen on hard economic times
with donors cutting funds due to its failure in Burundi amid reports of
partisanship and incompetence.
In all this, however,
all the EAC leaders claim to be rooting for integration and are
supposedly pan-Africanists. They also continue to blame colonialists for
the poverty in their countries and vow to “remove colonial borders.”
In reality, these leaders are burning and auctioning off the little integration we currently have.
Christopher
Kayumba, PhD. Senior Lecturer, School of Journalism and Communication,
UR; Lead consultant, MGC Consult International Ltd. E-mail: ckayumba@yahoo.com; twitter account: @Ckayumba Website:www.mgcconsult.com
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