Regional law bodies call for fresh review of EAC treaty

 By Zephania Ubwani

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Arusha. Regional law bodies based here have reiterated their call for the amendment of the East African Community (EAC) Treaty.

This, they insisted, would create room for expansion and ensure a new entrant met all the benchmarks required for a new member.

“The Treaty must be relooked to ensure it adequately provides for the new entrant to adhere to the laid down laws,” they said.

The Pan African Lawyers’ Union (Palu) and the East African Law Society (EALS) insist recent developments necessitate review of the Treaty.

They cited the proposed admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into the six nation bloc as agreed by the EAC Heads of State last week.

“We heartily welcome the speedy entry of the DRC into the EAC. We applaud this,” affirmed Mr Donald Deya,the chief executive officer of Palu.

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However, he emphasized that the accession process must be inclusive and participatory, especially for the citizens of the DRC.

He pledged that as professional associations, Palu and EALS will reach out to the EAC and the people of DR Congo on the benefits of integration.

The process, Mr Deya further insisted, must also involve civil society organizations (CSOs) from the six existing members of the bloc.

Mr David Sigano, the EALS acting chief executive officer said although the admission of the giant country into the bloc was “plausible ,” it has its pitfalls in equal measure.

“We must be careful and avoid the pitfalls that came with the accession of South Sudan into the Community,” he told The Citizen.

He stressed that like the current members, DRC has to satisfy “all requirements to be an EAC member state”.

Mr Sigano added that while the admission process was underway “all rules of procedure as stipulated in the EAC Treaty must be followed”.

He added that with continued expansion,itr was high time the EAC Treaty was amended so as to accommodate new official languages.

“In the case of DRC, French has to be adopted as one of the official Community languages,” Mr Singano said.

The Treaty which was signed by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya in 1999 provides that the official language of the EAC shall be English.

Kiswahili shall be developed as the lingua franca but will soon be adopted as a second official language.

Palu says with new developments and increase in membership it was time to declare English, Swahili and French as official languages of the EAC.

There should be some amendments to the EAC Treaty “for effective and efficient operations now that we will have seven partner states,” it said.

The EAC Treaty is a 128 page document which has been used as a principal guideline for the Community operations since 1999.

Despite repeated calls for amendment to match with new developments and emerging challenges, it remains a binding legal document for day to day operations of the EAC.

Palu, the premier continental forum of lawyers and lawyers’ associations in Africa based here, stresses that some of its provisions and key protocols of the EAC need revisiting.

This will make “the Community work well for its upcoming (seven) partner states and, most importantly, for the people”.

DRC is expected to formally join the EAC by the middle of next year after the finalization of negotiations that will commence soon with the EAC secretariat.

The 2.3 million square kilometre state currently has a population nearing 100 million people and its admission will increase the total GDP of EAC bloc by $50 billion.