National
Ordinary citizens have not felt impact of EAC
Source: EAC
In Summary
However, according to a recent survey, ordinary East Africans like Mr Mugizi have so far not felt the impact of the integration process since it became operational 10 years ago.
The survey, titled Benefits Experienced by Ordinary Citizens from the East African Community Regional Integration, was released in Arusha, Tanzania last month by a team of technocrats led by Regina Mwatha Karega.
Kampala
Peter-Claver Mugizi, 35, lives in a two-roomed house in Ssisa village, Katabi Sub-county, Wakiso District.
He earns his bread from doing menial jobs for better-to-do villagers. This earns him a paltry Shs2,000 ($0.8) at the end of each day to cater for his family of five. To him, life is about where he will get his next meal.
When the leaders of the five East African Community (EAC) countries recently signed a landmark agreement for a common market to allow free movement of people, goods, labour and capital across the member countries, Mr Mugizi said he did not know what the fuss was all about.
Not aware
“I have never heard of such a thing because to me what matters is how I will go through each day,” said Mr Mugizi.
The customs union, which the leaders signed in November and which comes to effect on July 1, 2010 after ratification by the member countries, is supposed to be one of offshoots from the integration of the five countries.
However, according to a recent survey, ordinary East Africans like Mr Mugizi have so far not felt the impact of the integration process since it became operational 10 years ago.
The survey, titled Benefits Experienced by Ordinary Citizens from the East African Community Regional Integration, was released in Arusha, Tanzania last month by a team of technocrats led by Regina Mwatha Karega.
The survey had 900 respondents interviewed with 300 respondents in each country interviewed. They included ordinary citizens and policy makers, majority of whom were between 36 and 45 years.
Free movement
According to the study, the most important thing most ordinary people know about the EAC is that it has helped them move freely across borders with minimal identification yet there are a lot more benefits that they could enjoy.
In Kenya, 82 per cent female and 78 per cent male had perceived the integration process from their ability to travel anywhere in the region with minimal identification. This contrasted with 76 per cent female and 69 per cent male in Uganda as well as 55 per cent male and 26 per cent Tanzanians.
The report emphasised that the documentation process of gaining entry into another partner state had lessened and that there were fewer queues at border points.
“Fifteen years ago, I used to catch the earliest bus to Nairobi for business so I don’t find a queue at the Malaba border but I am glad that now I don’t have to go through all that hustle,” says Hajj Mubarak Kivumbi, a trader on Luwum Street, who says he has plied the Nairobi-Kampala route for the last 25 years.
While most of the interviewees acknowledged that they clearly knew about the EAC, it also emerged that most understood it to be made up of the three original partner states; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They did not mention Burundi and Rwanda who only joined in 2007.
The report observes that Kenyan citizens were quite familiar with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as partner states with a high mention of 93.6 per cent, 92.3 per cent and 92 per cent respectively.
In Uganda, 89.3 per cent of the respondents knew that their country is an EAC partner state while 81 per cent identified Kenya and 76 per cent identified Tanzania. However, only 50.6 per cent and 44 per cent Ugandans were able to identify Rwanda and Burundi as partner states.
“These findings clearly stipulate that EAC ordinary citizens are not very clear on which partner states comprise the East African Community,” notes the report.
Business opportunities across the three east African countries were also quoted widely in the report as benefits being enjoyed. In Uganda 45 per cent, 21 per cent in Tanzania and 31 per cent Kenyans mentioned that there has been increased business opportunity in the region.
Ability to buy goods from other regions cheaply was mentioned most (53 per cent) by Kenyans followed by Ugandans (26 per cent) but this aspect was not popular among Tanzanians who had only 4 per cent.
The chairman of the Uganda Manufacturers Association, Mr Gideon Badagawa, says as manufacturers, they are yet to see the benefits of the integration process.
Conducive business
“For us, benefits are yet to show because the market is yet to expand. But with the integration taking shape and a market of over Shs130 million people, maybe we shall,” he said.
“The trade balance favours Kenya and in fact it is negative for Uganda because everyone from manufacturers to the ordinary person, buy from Kenya more than from Tanzania.”
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