EAC: Let’s seek the real culprits

One popular saying in the interlacustrine region of East Africa ( also known as  the Great Lakes), goes thus in one of my grandmas’ tongues:  ow’omutwe muhango, n’obu otariisize,  noyonesa, meaning once you are notoriously known for being careless with your flock, and it often destroys neighbours’ crops, even the day your flock is securely tethered at home, you are the automatic  culprit in case the crops are destroyed by an unknown  flock. 

This nugget of wisdom can’t be more apt to our checkered EAC integration agenda than in the last three months as the body got a new leadership. 

First, it was the new  EAC secretary general , Dr Peter Mathuki from Kenya, who took the relay from Burundian economist Liberat Mfumukeko (we argue that this latter performed to stakeholder expectations). 

Dr Mathuki, who moved to the EAC Secretariat from the helm of the EABC (East African Business Council), had NTBs ( non-tariff barriers) as his automatic culprit, in his very first reported words regarding his new office and its exigencies. 

 ‘It must be NTBs…this is obvious’, is the latest accusation we have from the new CEO at the East African Business Council, Rwandan economist, Mr John Bosco Kalisa. 

Yes, NTBs must be eliminated, was the news tagline featuring his maiden tour of manufacturing industries in Uganda. 

Yet truth be told, the culprit is elsewhere, though occasionally NTB lets his animals loose into neighbours’ crop fields. 

It is these real culprits that the new leadership and EAC Secretariat and EABC Secretariat need to smoke out and parade them to pay for their negligence, with appropriate compensation to the families whose crops have been devoured. 

The real culprits are legion but can be tamed once the gang leaders are netted. And both men have what it takes to refocus the direction of our integration if it is to live to our hopes, dreams and aspirations. 

Real culprit number one is the delusional  ‘private-sector, citizen-led’ integration, which deviated from the strong pillars and anchors of the pioneer EAC: East African Airways, East African Ports and Harbours, East African Posts and Telecommunications, East African Common Services Organisation, East African Literature Bureau, East African Railways, East African Examinations Council, East African Currency Board,  and many more, all thriving on active, dirigiste  State involvement .

 The only survivors of this era are The East African Development Bank and the Inter-University Council of East Africa, both headquartered in Uganda. 

In conformity with the ‘new paradigm’, the developmental State of the old EAC was relegated, with government presence only replicated in the assembly, council of ministers and the Summit, where the Heads of State and Government meet as the final political organ. 

 The result of this ‘citizen-led’ integration has been a plethora of ‘stakeholder’ organs and bodies in Arusha, with overlapping paper missions, visions, goals, objectives. The common binding thread(and perhaps prima faciae raison d’être) of all these organisations, is development partner financing. More on this culprit soon.

Luckily for us and the top honchos in Arusha, the culprit buster for this premier faux pas of EAC integration is there for takes it is called The Kampala Agreement.  

This is one valuable inheritance from the Founding Fathers that we have chosen to ignore.

 It was signed in Mbale, Uganda in early 1970s, and its core tenet is planned, evenly distributed industrialisation across the EAC.   We start from here. And the rest will fall in line. Stay tuned.

Matsiko Kahunga is a Ugandan, living and working in East Africa. 

www.kanyonzablogspot.com