EAC common market remains a pipedream

By Luke Anami

It’s a long walk before East African Common Market Protocol comes to bear fruit.

Internal legal systems, high work permit fees and bureaucracy continue to hamper the free movement of labour under the East African Community Common Market Protocol (CMP).

The protocol, which calls for free movement of goods, labour, capital and services in the region came into effect on July 1, 2010 and was to be implemented over a five-year period.

But two years to the expiry of the deadline, border controls, high work permit fees, bureaucracy and unwillingness of EAC partner states to cede their sovereignty have delayed a potential regional market that would improve the livelihoods of more than 130 million people in the five member states.

A new study titled “Domestication of the EAC Common Market: Challenges and Opportunities in Implementation of Movement of Labour makes interesting revelations about each country’s state of CMP implementation.

The findings by Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) take stock of the achievements and challenges of implementation of the Common Market Protocol by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

A look at each of the five EAC partner States reveals a cumbersome process marked with slow implementation pace detrimental to the region’s population that is willing to exploit the potential that such market offers.

The report captures some hope but also highlights a couple of challenges facing the implementation of the protocol.

Kenya, whose president Mwai Kibaki is set to hand over the chairmanship to Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni later this week, has waived work permit fee for EAC nationals.

New laws

Kenya has repealed laws that inhibited free movement of people, which include Kenya Citizenship Act (Cap 170), Immigration Act (Cap 172), Alien Restriction Act (Cap 173) and Visa Regulations.

“New laws have since taken effect. They include Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act No. 12 of 2011 and Kenya Citizens and Foreign Nationals Management Act No. 31 of 2011,” Barrack Ndegwa, Integration Secretary at Kenya’s EAC ministry says.

The FES study report indicates that a total of 2,755, and 810 work permits have been applied for and issued to workers from other Partner States in 2011 and as at May, 2012 respectively. This also mirrors the number of employment contracts concluded in Kenya for EAC workers.

Dr Sammy Nyambari, Director of Labour at the Ministry of Labour says the ministry is working hard to ensure the country’s labour laws conform to the EAC protocols.

The Ministry of Labour has also registered 132 private employment agencies involved in collection and dissemination of information on job vacancies. However, there is no regional labour market information system yet.

The report also notes that although Kenya is working hard to put in place national social security policies, laws are yet to be harmonised with other EAC countries.

The report too captures Uganda as having moved to ease labour mobility by issuing visitor’s pass citizens from East African region at no charge in accordance with the protocol.

However, the pass allows EAC citizens to enter and stay in Uganda for only up to two months and not six months as provided for in the Common Market Protocol.

The report indicates that the right to work in Uganda is not absolute even for professionals as the Minister may limit a range of jobs open to migrants.

While the protocol provides that a worker whose permit has been cancelled may within 30 days leave or regularise his/her stay or leave. In Uganda, however, the law renders such worker an illegal immigrant immediately, defeating the spirit of the EAC integration process.

Another limitation with Uganda is that they are yet to develop a system that allows a worker in the country to port their social benefits.

But all hope is not lost in Winston Churchill’s Pearl of Africa. To ensure it adheres to the protocol’s spirit of free movement of labour, Uganda is developing the Common Market Implementation Plan as well as conducting a legislative impact assessment of the protocol.

The government has also commissioned an economic impact assessment of the protocol.

Rwanda was the first EAC country to begin issuing machine readable and electronic national identity cards. To date, the country has issued more than to 1,030,000 readable cards.

By August this year, the country received 4,655 work permit applications and issued 4,857 resident permits.

In ensuring laws conform to the EAC common market protocol; Rwanda’s cabinet approved the National Policy & Strategy on EAC integration, in February 2012.

Most open

President Paul Kagame’s government has put in place New Immigration Law No O4/2011 of 21/03/2011, replacing Law No. 17/99 of 16/08/1999 on Immigration and Emigration.

A visitor’s pass in Rwanda is provided for six months without the requirement of visa while a student pass is free. However, trade, business, service, semi-skilled and artists from the region attract a small work permit fee.

The FES report shows a total of 1,110,013 citizen-entered Rwanda by August 2012.

The country has three major border posts that operate 24 hours (Kigali International Airport, Gatuna and Rurumo).

Others operate up to 10pm (Akanyaru and La Corniche). These have helped facilitate and allow free movement of persons in Rwanda.

The report notes that while Tanzania hosts EAC Headquarters, she has been the most reluctant partner in the implementation of the common market protocol.

So far, the only positive step towards implementation of the protocol is initiating a process of issuing smart national identity cards. The cards are a precursor to allowing freedom of persons from the other Partner states to be a reality.

Due to the legal set up of the union forming the United Republic of Tanzania and the limitation of size and population of Zanzibar, the domestication of regulations for the free movement of persons and labour have not been reviewed in conformity with the EAC common market protocol.

Tanzania is yet to review its immigration laws. Employment of aliens in Tanzania is prohibited unless one obtains a permit. Tanzania laws specifically prohibit any alien from engaging in any prescribed trade, business, profession or any other occupation except after obtaining an appropriate permit.

This year, Tanzania increased its work permit fee to KSh200,000 making it difficult for ordinary East Africans to access its labour market.

Its immigration laws saw several journalists with Citizen/Mwananchi newspapers under the Kenyan media house Nation Media Group all nationals of Kenya expelled from Tanzania in 2005 for the reasons of not having working permits.

Cautious approach

Tanzania has always taken a cautious approach in domestication of the regulations governing free movement of workers in the envisaged protocol. Its argument has always been that the EAC Treaty can only be implemented gradually because the time limit for domestication is set to be in the year 2015.

Using the ILO classification, Partner States committed themselves to open up their labour markets for different categories of workers. As such, Burundi’s labour market is open to workers in the following category of all workers: medical, education and technology.

Burundi operates an open border policy for citizens of the East African Community.