Let's keep fire of EAC dream burning

President William Ruto and his Tanzanian counterpart Samia Suluhu during the funeral service of the late President Hage Geingob held at Independence Stadium in Windhoek, Namibia. [PCS]

Taking a bus or a train to Makerere or Dar es Salaam to attend university would have been one of the greatest moments of my life.

Both, in addition to Nairobi, were campuses of the University of East Africa before 1970.

A recent visit to the University of Dar es Salaam evoked that memory as I watched youngsters proudly walking along the streets and corridors; I wished there were Kenyans too.

This university and the adjoining Ardhi University are almost a city by themselves. Someone will quickly ask: "Why bother with leaving your country for other countries? Is a university not a university?" Karatina, Mzumbe, or Makerere universities' Bachelor's of Commerce or any other degree might be similar in content and even textbooks.

The best take-home for a graduate is not the knowledge, which keeps changing and evolving, but the experience.

And there is nothing like a bad experience. Experience can't be replicated or bought. Remember the experience of going to a boarding school? Getting lost in the city? Does it surprise you that the University of East Africa graduates are still on Kenya's intellectual, political and entrepreneurial pedestals, long after they should have left the stage?

Did they get that boldness and confidence from learning to swim from the deep end, leaving the comfort of their villages and hamlets?

Compare the experience of this older generation with the new one, schooling from kindergarten to university in their county or ward.

Add the fact that parents nowadays pick up and drop off their children from secondary schools on closing and opening days. When will they ever grow and mature, be independent? Are we overprotecting our children? When will they face the hard reality?

Think of a lecture room full of East Africans and other nationalities. The examples given, the discussions, the jokes, the stereotypes, the intellectual dynamism and competition. Our students miss that today. The comfort they enjoy today is very costly tomorrow.

We recently tried to revive the East African dream by having students from Tanzania and Kenya in the same class at the University of Nairobi (UoN) as part of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) project that has two master's degree programmes and other activities like summer schools.

Top universities in the world, like Harvard, are famous for internationalisation, which is now under assault, hopefully not for political reasons.

Internationalisation enriches our experiences by immersing us in different cultures and competition.

Such internationalisation pays off through innovation and broadening students' world view. I got some real life experience in America's Deep South, specifically in Mississippi and Toronto, Canada. The University of East Africa was the seedbed of internationalisation. Top universities, and some local ones, require their students to study abroad for a semester or weeks.

Some students even come to Kenya. How do we expect our graduates to compete with such exposed graduates?

It's also possible that internationalisation, including "East Africanisation," enriches the genetic pool.

After all, universities and colleges are great matchmakers. How many Kenyans married in Tanzania and Uganda after studying there during the heydays of the East African Community (EAC)?

If internationalisation is that beneficial, why do we ignore it? We love the security of familiarity. You do not ask for your way in your village or county.

That is false security. The real world after school is rougher and rewards risk-takers. Imagine an 18-year-old looking for accommodation in Tanzania or Uganda, a difficult but a source of pride. No wonder immigrants make great entrepreneurs. Two, is accommodation. Once students are assured of clean and secure accommodation, they will easily study in other universities, including in Kenya.

I noted most renowned American and Canadian universities assure first- and second-year students accommodation on campus.

Urban universities would overflow if they had affordable accommodation. Private accommodation is nowadays common around campuses, but how affordable is it?

Curiously, no one is investing where it matters most: labs and workshops.

Studying across the borders is expensive. Who should pay for it when studying locally is considered expensive? When was a new experience cheap? Can we have an experience subsidy for students? Let's not forget that the East African dream went beyond universities to rails, ports, harbours and other common services.

Today, each country runs its services, with no synergy among the enlarged EAC. Even disasters like Covid-19 were not well coordinated. We trade more in the region, but we have not exploited the full potential.

The East African dream rivalled the European Union (EU). It was killed by our politicians. They revived it, but it's yet to reach the grandeur of the previous "Community."

Now it has more members. Could I be wrong in asking if it's getting too big? Do too many cooks spoil the broth?

Paradoxically, as the EAC expands, Kenya's key focus is on devolved units, the antithesis of globalisation and internationalisation.

How much do Kenyans know of our neighbours beyond stereotypes? The focus on EAC, Africa and the world is muted beyond media.

Yet the beneficiaries of integration will be our children. Why can't we start them early through schooling? Why has no one talked of a University of East Africa as we build more universities?

There is a group that is fully enjoying the East African dream; it's mostly the foreign investors.

They make money freely in any country, enjoying economies of scale and lots of good will. The ordinary East Africans don't enjoy the same privileges; they are viewed with suspicion and often disdain.

Do we feel at home in Tanzania or any other East African country, like Americans in Canada or the UK?

It gets more interesting, while Elon Musk and others are fixated on space and beyond, we are fixated on counties.

Let's revive the East African dream in word and deed. Only then can we reach out to the rest of the world and space.