Charles Njonjo wrong to doubt EAC integration

By Phyllis Kandie
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It was refreshing to read the opinion piece by Mr Charles Njonjo on March 10th on the East African Community (EAC) and especially his fear that the region is rushing into integration when history teaches otherwise. It was stimulating because Mr Njonjo is a man with a place in the history of this country and also because of the reasons he gave for the aversion considering Njonjo’s antipathy for the EAC is well known.

The former AG holds the opinion that the Community collapsed in 1977 largely because of the ideological differences between Kenya and Tanzania. The latter was socialist where the former had chosen a free-market economy and, it should not be forgotten that Dr Milton Obote unveiled the Common Man’s Charter before Idi Amin took over via a military coup.

Njonjo ties the ideological divide between the founding member countries to his advice that the EAC must not be a club for presidents. While I agree that ideological differences were at the heart of the disagreements that led to the collapse of EAC, my position is that the Community never was, is not and never will be a preserve of the EAC presidents.

Before the collapse of the original EAC that comprised Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the accent was on the unity of the people of the three countries to form a common market for the betterment of the economies, of the countries and their peoples. The foresight of the founding presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Obote and Julius Nyerere cannot be gainsaid.

Throughout the world, regional economic groupings anchored in trade and the promotion of the same between member countries and other regions or countries are in vogue. I can appreciate this was not the case in Njonjo’s day but times have changed. Regional alignments can exploit economies of scale in a way that nations the size of Kenya can never hope to on their own.

The foresight of the founders of the EAC in the 70’s was undone chiefly by their ideological differences, but their successors chose to revive the Community because of two reasons: One, they saw the foresight of their predecessors, the idea remains profound true today as it was then- and, two, they had learnt sufficiently from the mistakes that led to the collapse of the Community.

Therefore, I must disagree in the strongest terms with Njonjo when he says EAC integration is ill-advised. All EAC protocols have been painstakingly negotiated and the monetary union signed in November last year; will climax in ten years. This attests to the expansive consultations that went into and continue to define progress within the EAC.

Njonjo appears alarmed that the EAC is no longer about three countries but five, including Rwanda and Burundi. He need not be afraid; the more the better. The union of five countries creates a larger trading block with a population, or market, of 138 million people. This should address Njonjo’s fear that the EAC is about presidents, which is his way of saying that it is an elitist club. The Community is about people; it is for people that EAC is aiming for a borderless region.

Njonjo proposes a referendum on integration which is a course that is impractical and complicated. The more prudent course of action and one that I am in the process of spearheading is the roll out of a visible and effective public sensitization campaign to awaken in Kenyans and all citizens of the EAC a desire to test the promise of integration and to own the benefits thereof.

I will be remiss if I signed off without addressing Mr Njonjo’s fear that the community is growing too big, and the underlying argument that if three was a problem, five is a recipe for disaster. Let’s put that in perspective. How big is the European Union and just how many other countries want to join and why? Regions are stronger as trading blocks and as single markets than as fragmented entities.

I want to end by stating the challenges that the EAC faced in 1977 have not been forgotten, but we do not hold them up as a reason to give up on integration but as a guide to help us avoid the pitfalls that wrecked the original Community and that will help us ensure our process endures and prospers. I say this is the time to work for the continued growth of EAC and not cast doubts on its ability to overcome the past.