Benefits abound but integration of EAC remains merely on paper

Mr Geofrey Ochieng Okoth, a Kenyan, completed his master's degree in biostatistics last May from Uganda's Makerere University thanks to a generous scholarship by the East African Community.

Ms Marie Cecile Muhorakey, a beneficiary from Rwanda, will next year finish her master's in crop protection, a course not available in her country, from Kenyatta University.

The East African Community - a bloc of seven countries - is far from achieving its dream of uniting its members under a federation, but that has not discouraged it from making tremendous strides in trade, education, health, immigration, agriculture and security - all of them issues beneficial to the region's ordinary people.

"The EAC scholarship was a blessing because without it I wouldn't have been able to pursue my master's degree," Okoth, who came from a family of peasant farmers and was lucky to get his first degree, told The Standard.

"Without this scholarship, I would have been stuck with only my bachelor's degree without the vast knowledge I acquired during my master's study. My dream to become an expert in population or epidemiological research would have just been a dream."

Cultural differences

During its 23-years of existence, the EAC has overcome disputes among member states, its citizens' language and cultural differences and dissimilar political systems. Home to about 283.7 million people - from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic and with three different time zones and Lake Victoria, the world's second largest reservoir of fresh water - the Eastern and Great Lakes regions are sleeping giants with enormous economic potentials and geopolitical importance.

"Intra-trade in the bloc...stood at US$9.5 billion in 2021 compared to US$7.1 billion, and US$7.9 billion in 2019 and 2020, respectively," Secretary General Secretary General Peter Mathuki told The Standard. "This represents a growth of 15 per cent in 2021 compared to a growth of 13 percent in 2020."

Mathuki said intra-EAC trade is still low but growing steadily, noting that EAC's trade with the rest of the world stood at about US$61.2 billion in 2021. The political heterogeneity, however, comes with its own obstacles: While member states nominally agree to the rules of the community, yet each country tends to do things its own way, exploiting the body's lack of an executive power that can enforce its decision. Politically, all member countries are expected to be democracies that protect their citizens' political and civil rights, but the reality on the ground is starkly different.

Decades in power

While Kenya - imperfect as it's - has been changing its leaders every 10 years since the 2002 elections, other countries' records are mixed. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has been in power since 1986, when the now 78-year-old former rebel leader seized power after ousting Idi Amin. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has been in power since 2000 and last July said he would consider running "for another 20 years."

According to Freedom House, an American organisation that advocates human rights and democratic change, the access of the citizens of the community to political rights and civil liberties range from "partly free," like Kenya and Tanzania to "not free," like Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

That reality flouts the community's treaty, which sets out conditions countries should meet before becoming a member: "adherence to universally acceptable principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice."

In fact, the bloc appears fixated more on quantity and less on how member states are ruled. Since 2000, it expanded from three countries to seven in 2022 with its combined GDP estimated at US$305.3 billion in 2021. Burundi and Rwanda joined the EAC on July 1, 2007, while South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo got their membership on Sept. 5, 2016 and July 11, 2022 respectively.

In 2017, regional leaders agreed to adopt confederation as a transitional model before their ultimate goal of federation, a reverie that has been drifting along since Mwalimu Nyerere put it forth in 1960 when he proposed to delay Tanganyika's independence until Kenya and Uganda gained theirs. Tanganyika was the name Tanzania used before it merged with Zanzibar and other islands in 1964. "Currently, an EAC team of experts charged with the responsibility of drafting the EAC political confederation constitution are undertaking stakeholder consultations in partner states," said Kenya's Ministry of East African Community, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development, adding that consultations have already been concluded in Uganda and Burundi.

The ministry said the EAC had given Kenya the "clout" it needed to negotiate in a collective voice internationally and push for the country's agenda. Kenya's export to member states was Sh192,418.4 million in 2021, while its imports from them was Sh91,892 million.

Since its revival on November 30, 1999, the bloc has achieved two of its four main goals: Customs Union, which allows goods and services to move among member states duty-free, and Common market, which gives citizens the right of residence and the freedom to travel within the region, as well as the right to freely move goods, persons, services, labour and capital inside the bloc. Professional and civil society bodies in the region have also come together to help narrow their countries' socio-economic and cultural gaps.

They include: The East Africa Law Society, the East African Business Council, the East African Communications Regulatory Organisation, the Joint Research Council for East Africa, the East African Youth Council and the East African Tourism Council.

Still, it's unclear whether the community will ever actualize real political integration. Some member states continue to act unilaterally to jealously safeguard their national interests.
Tanzania stirred up a diplomatic row with Kenya in 2017 after it auctioned about 1,300 Kenyan cows that crossed into its territory. Tanzania, which hosts the EAC's headquarters, also burned 6,500 chicks from Kenya alive over what it said were concerns over bird flu.

Kenya retaliated and in 2021, banned maize from Tanzania and Uganda, saying test results "revealed high levels of mycotoxins that are consistently beyond safety limits." The Agriculture and Food Authority, a state corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture, said, "over the years a number of acute and chronic aflatoxin related illness cases have been recorded in Kenya including deaths."

Also, in 2019, Kenya banned - in a clear violation of the bloc's common market protocol - entry of Ugandan milk, eliciting condemnation from Uganda's then minister of State for East African Affairs Julius Maganda, who decried that Nairobi wanted to frustrate his country's farmers because the Ugandan milk was cheaper than Kenya's.

"They are using some avenues of failing us; that is the truth," said Maganda. Rivalry - muted or pronounced, on politics or on economy- has dogged the community, with Tanzania apparently edgy about Kenya's big brother attitude.

Bagamoyo Port

Dar es Salaam appears to be busting a gut, saying recently that it will begin next year the construction of the Bagamoyo Port, a $10 billion project, to serve the needs of its immediate landlocked neighbors, a feat that, if pulled off, would put the Port of Mombasa, now the region's transport hub, in a sorry state. Tanzania, Burundi and the DRC are also seeking funds from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to build a standard gauge railway, or SGR, to link Burundi and the DRC to Tanzanian ports. Another SGR linking Tanzanian ports to Rwanda could come online soon.

"Good intentions alone do not produce results. The EAC countries seem to gloss over problems, thinking that somehow they will go away on their own," Richard Mshomba, a professor of Economics at La Salle University in the US told The Standard. "What the EAC needs to do is to take stock of all unfulfilled commitments and address the constraints. "There is a wide gap between what countries agree to do and what they actually end up doing. That happens partly because in the negotiations phase, countries do not go into the 'nitty-gritty' aspects of the agreements," Mshomba said. "Countries 'commit' to a schedule to remove trade barriers either without any real intention of doing so or before evaluating the impact of such reductions."

Mshomba said the community's member states are not mature enough to create a viable confederation, reeling off internal problems in member countries: The instability in South Sudan, Kenya's tribe issue and the lack of freedom in Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. "The EAC countries are not ready to form a political confederation, even if their experts report otherwise," Mshomba said.

A 2004 report by a committee on fast tracking the community's political integration recommended that the bloc launch the federation in 2010, calling the need for a union "imperative" to survive in a global environment. The report admitted that the issue is "both simple and difficult." "Simple because there's a clear political will and commitment on the part of the top leadership of the partner states for achieving that goal," and difficult because "the art of transforming the EAC into a political federation is a delicate process due to, among others, entrenched national sovereignty, which need time to be reduced" and the "need for a sound socio-economic foundation to create a sustainable Political Federation."

While individual countries are not in a hurry to abandon their sovereignty, analysts warn against a rushed federation in a region still rife with political instability, rivalry and nationalism. "Like most regional organisations, the EAC will be more effective as an economic union than a political one. Personal rivalries, different levels of democracy, and varied political systems mean genuine political integration will not happen," Nic Cheeseman, a Professor of Democracy at University of Birmingham, told The Standard.

"This was the case in the 1960s when pan Africanism was far stronger than it is today. That will place limits on economic integration, but the EAC will continue to make progress on boosting regional trade - as it has over the past decade."

Economic integration

For the students who benefited from the EAC scholarship, the bloc is like the goose that lays the golden eggs. During his study, Okoth, 27, received a monthly stipend of EUR380 and a one-off research fee of EUR 1,500, as well fees for tuition, medical insurance and extracurricular events.
The EAC's full ride scholarship also saved Muhorakey's job as assistant lecturer in agriculture at one of Rwanda's polytechnic colleges.

"Upgrading my education was one of the requirements to keep the job or to be promoted from one level to another," Muhorakey, 30, told The Standard. "...Without the intervention of the EAC scholarship, I was in danger of losing my job." Her dream now is to pursue a doctoral degree in the same field, she said. The goal of the bloc's scholarship, launched in 2018, is to "train master's scholars who will serve as change agents for regional economic development and integration in the EAC." It's the result of an agreement between the EAC Secretariat and Inter-University Council for East Africa, or IUCEA, on one hand and German Development Bank, popularly known by its German acronym KfW, on the other hand.

To win the scholarship, a student must pursue a master's study in a country other than his or her own and choose one subject among six options: Mathematics, Engineering, Informatics, Science, Technology and Business Science programs. "Integration is a process and it would be necessary for the first pillars of integration, especially the Customs Union and Common Market, to be fully implemented before we federate," said Rwanda's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

To realise the dream of monetary union, the community has to first establish key institutions, such as East African Monetary Institute, East African Central Bank, and other institutions responsible for financial services, statistics and surveillance, compliance and enforcement.

Member countries must also attain macro-economic convergence criteria: Headline inflation ceiling of 8 percent, fiscal deficit (excluding grants) ceiling of 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), public debt to GDP of 50 percent ceiling in Net Present Value, fiscal deficit (excluding grants) ceiling of 6 percent of GDP and tax to GDP ratio of 25 per cent, core inflation ceiling of five per cent and reserve cover of four and a half months of imports. Member countries have blown the 2021 deadline to meet those criteria and maintain them for three years until 2024.

Free trade area

The deadline has since been moved to 2031. Kigali said that while nationalism is spreading in the world, yet "regional integration is on the rise in Africa."

"African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is a testament to the rejection of nationalism by African governments," said Rwanda's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to questions from The Standard.

"In addition, globalisation has been important and remains so despite recent disruptions. ... But economic cooperation is there to stay." Rwanda's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation told The Standard that the EAC provided Kigali an access to a larger market of approximately 300 million people and helped it attract regional investments and overcome constraints that come with being a landlocked country.

This year's total exports of Rwanda - whose 30 per cent of its goods pass through the Port of Mombasa and 70 per cent through the Dar es Salaam Port - was US$96.7 million from January to June. Total imports and re-exports were US$549.83 million and US$ 319.33 million respectively, according to Rwandan's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Figures from the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority - whose mandate is the "removal of all obstacles to the flow of trade and services along the Northern Corridor" - the region's use of the Port of Mombasa varied from one country to another, with Uganda leading the pack with 82.1 percent, while its total transit volume has risen by a rough estimate of 10 percent to 9.6 million tonnes. South Sudan's use was at 7.6 percent with its imported goods estimated to be 563,663 tonnes, while exports are estimated to be 170,469 tonnes.

Tanzania imported about 229,652 tonnes and exported 27,459 tonnes through the Port of Mombasa - about 2.6 percent. The Democratic Republic of Congo's transit volume was 413,249 tonnes, 4.9 percent. Rwanda's and Burundi's use stood at 2.4 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

"The transit volume of goods imported and exported to Burundi has dropped drastically as they prefer the Port of Dar Es Salaam," said the authority, which came into being in 1985 after Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC agreed to link their countries to the Port of Mombasa. South Sudan joined the multimodal trade route in 2012.

Asked what Rwanda would have lost if there were no East African Community, the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "goods destined for Rwanda from Mombasa or Tanzania would still have been paying import taxes (as before)." Before Kigali joined the bloc, the ministry said, a truck carrying goods used to pay taxes in every country it passed through. Now citizens of the region stop once, utilizing the One stop border posts. School fees in some member states have been harmonized and the one network area has boosted trade due to the ease of communication.

In 2014, the EAC allocated Rwanda two Centers of Excellence: The EAC Regional Centre of Excellence on Immunization, Vaccines and Health Supply Chain Management and the Center of Excellence for Biomedical Engineering and e-Health and Rehabilitation Sciences hosted by the University of Rwanda. The centers offer post-graduate courses in Biomedical engineering and e-health, benefiting Rwandan Health Care workers. Together they offered 94 masters' degrees, nine doctoral degrees and three post-doctoral degrees, according to Rwanda's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Rich history

When Nairobi, Dar e Salaam and Kampala revived the bloc in 1999, they were tapping into the rich history of cooperation among their countries that went as far back as 1917, when Kenya and Uganda had Customs Union, an initiative Tanganyika (now Tanzania) later joined in 1927.
The community now offers its citizens smooth cross-border trade, employment and investment opportunities, an e-Passport, the chance to take their governments to the EAC's Court of Justice and send representatives to the EAC Legislative Assembly, or EALA, which liaises with member states' National Assemblies on matters relating to the Community.

In landmark rulings, the EAC Court overturned in 2018 a Tanzanian government's order banning Mseto, a local newspaper, from publishing for three years. Again in 2015, the court sided with Burundian Journalists' Union to reject a section of the Burundian Media Law that obligated journalists to "reveal their sources of information before the competent authorities." It called the obligation to disclose a source "unreasonable." Set up in 2001, the court has a responsibility to "ensure the adherence to law in the interpretation and application of and compliance with the EAC Treaty." And regional countries have no option, but to obey the court's rulings.

But many citizens in the region have little or no information about the existence of the EAC and its parliament whose mission is to "represent the people of East Africa in a bid to foster economic, social, cultural and political integration."