Raila Odinga offers to help resolve EAC dispute
What you need to know:
- Mr Odinga has previously resisted overtures from the Jubilee Government to appoint him Kenya’s envoy at large
- The Cord leader’s concerns came in the wake of reports from Dar es Salaam that Tanzania was considering a pulling out of the EAC
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday offered to help resolve the controversy threatening to break up the East African Community.
Mr Odinga appealed to Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania) and Paul Kagame (Rwanda) to urgently pick a panel of statesmen from the EAC to resolve the controversy that has seen Tanzania threaten to pull out of the political and economic bloc.
“I want to propose to regional Heads of State that a panel of statesmen from the EAC be put together to work out a mechanism to resolve the impasse and put the union back on track,” he told a press conference.
Asked whether he was ready to sit on the panel if picked, Mr Odinga answered in the affirmative.
“Yes, I’m ready to represent Kenya on that panel.” (READ: EAC pledges to tackle ‘cracks’)
ENVOY
Mr Odinga has previously resisted overtures from the Jubilee Government to appoint him Kenya’s envoy at large, with his supporters terming it a ploy to push him into political retirement.
The Cord leader’s concerns came in the wake of reports from Dar es Salaam that Tanzania was considering a pulling out of the EAC. (READ: EAC deals illegal, says Tanzania)
Its minister for EAC Affairs, Mr Samuel Sitta, is reported to have told a charged Parliament in Dodoma that Dar would not wait for a “divorce certificate” from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, but would “shoot before we are shot.”
The minister spoke on the same day Presidents Kenyatta, Kagame, Museveni and Salva Kiir of South Sudan signed a host of protocols and agreements in Kigali, including free movement of goods and persons, infrastructural development and transformation into a single Customs Union.
