Discard fears over rivalry, leaders tell East African member states
What you need to know:
- Kenyatta and Kagame say there must be free movement of goods and people for the bloc to grow
KIGALI, RWANDA
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame have challenged East African Community member States to open their boundaries for free movement of goods and labour in order to fully realise regional integration.
They said continued fears over competition “is primitive and unfounded.”
Speaking at the launch of the sixth East African Business Summit in Kigali, the pair said political will is required to fully integrate the region. The summit is organised by Nation Media Group, Citi Bank, KPMG, Deloitte, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Serena Hotels.
“Let us be frank with each other, we have not been able to move fast because of national fears, a sense of insecurity that if one opens up their people will be denied jobs and other opportunities.
Deal with these fears
“We must deal with these fears. We need to start talking about our people being the East African people. Kenya and Rwanda have made progress on this. We have been clear on opening up our labour market to take full advantage of the labour that is available in EA region,” Mr Kenyatta said while fielding questions from Kenya Commercial Bank chief executive officer Joshua Oigara.
President Kagame, who hosted the event, said Rwanda is not just allowing Kenyans and other East African to set up business and work, but also dealing with the question of mentality and fears that some people tend to have.
“To increase trade, it is not only as a result of exporting raw materials but on basis on value addition. For the rest of World we sale raw materials. This is as primitive as the same way people are looking at not allowing free movement of labour market.”
“We do have unwarranted worries. We have experimented this in Rwanda. When we opened our borders, removed restriction on work permits and visas, everyone benefited,” Mr Kagame said.
“I told them if Kenyan doctors and engineers come here, do we need them? They said yes. I asked where doctors and engineers are in the Rwandan market. They said Kenyan doctors will fill the gap where one doctor is currently serving tens of thousands of people,” he said.
“If Rwanda doesn’t fear labour from Kenya why should other bigger countries in the community worry about Kenya?” Mr Kagame asked.
President Kenyatta, who chairs the EAC Heads of States Summit, said opening up of labour market between Kenya and Rwanda was inspired by the approach that Kagame and former President Mwai Kibaki made.
He asked other states within the bloc (Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi) to follow the example set by Rwanda and Kenya in freeing its borders to free movement of trade and labour.
“We must stop this inward looking mentality of colonialists. We must allow our people to move across the borders freely. Let us not be fearful about each other,” he said.
