As East Africa’s political class bickers, the people move on

Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania. Nyerere was a strong supporter of the cooperation of East African states to the extent that he was willing to delay the independence of Tanganyika in 1961 so that the region could attain independence as one federation. Today, as the leaders haggle and bicker, the people and business in the region are moving on. The political class could be compelled to follow the people. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Even before the advent of colonialism, border communities in what became Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, traded with each other.
  • It is therefore not surprising that when the British came and organised the regional cooperation in a formal way, things worked out smoothly

By FRED OLUOCH and GEORGE OMONDI

East Africans have lived together and traded among themselves since time immemorial.

Even before the advent of colonialism, border communities in what became Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, traded with each other.


Common ethnic and cultural links bound them together. There was no currency, so barter trade was the in-thing.

It is therefore not surprising that when the British came and organised the regional cooperation in a formal way, things worked out smoothly.

Indeed, the community was only sabotaged by the egos of political leaders and the bureaucracy.


Today, the revived East African Community (EAC), despite the challenges it faces, prides itself as the most progressive of all the five regional economic blocs in Africa.


But the current success did not come easy, mainly due to lingering struggles between the pro-co-operation forces and those who wanted individual countries to chart their own course.

Nationalistic forces

Britain had wanted to create a federation, but the idea was fiercely opposed by some nationalistic forces in Uganda and Kenya.


Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was a strong supporter of the cooperation to the extent that he was willing to delay the independence of Tanganyika in 1961 so that the region could attain independence as one federation.


Earlier on, the British had established the customs union between Kenya and Uganda in 1917, while the then Tanganyika joined in 1927.

The cooperation was upgraded to the East African High Commission from 1948 to 1961. It provided a customs union, a common external tariff, currency and postage. It also dealt with common services in transport and communications, research, and education.


So, when the three East African countries became independent in succession beginning 1961 (Tanganyika), 1962 (Uganda) and Kenya in 1963, there was greater need for them to cooperate on the economic front as opposed to going it alone. 


As independence approached, the British established the East African Common Services Organisation, which turned into the East African Community in 1967. 


Besides offering a large market for foreign direct investment with many multinationals establishing themselves in the region, the community established corporations that cut across borders.

Citizens moved and worked across the region, from professionals to casual labourers.
Key institutions included the East African Railways and Harbours, East African Airways, East African Posts and Telecommunications and East African Development Bank.


Other areas of common interest included education.

There was a single syllabus and a single examination body – the East African Examinations Council.

There was the Inter-University Council of East Africa, and the University of East Africa with specialised colleges in each country.

The East African Literature Bureau engaged in publishing.


The community operated well at the initial stages because the leaders then—Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Nyerere (Tanzania) and Dr Milton Obote (Uganda) — were still learning the ropes of leadership and regional geopolitics.


But soon, problems started creeping in. Ideological differences became clear with Kenya embracing capitalism, Tanzania opting for socialism in the form of Ujamaa, while Uganda was oscillating between capitalism and socialism through Obote’s political and economic blueprint — The Common Man’s Charter.


The community collapsed in 1977, with the three countries descending into a bitter scramble over its commonly owned properties.


This is one of the reasons Tanzania is still very cautious in implementing certain aspects of the common market in the revived EAC, and has particularly stood firm that land cannot be part of the shared resources.


By the time of its collapse, the community had a monetary union, with a currency board, running concurrently with parity currency, where each country had its own currency that was exchanging at the same rate.

Today, the issue of a monetary union is a major point of division and fear.
Despite the break-up, the citizens of the three countries continued to trade with each other at individual levels.

They also kept cross-border cultural links.


The scenario later forced presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to sign a Treaty for East African Cooperation in Arusha, on November 30, 1993, establishing a Tri-partite Commission for Cooperation.


The East African Community was finally revived on November 30, 1999, when the new East African Treaty was signed. It came into force on July 7, 2000, 23 years after the collapse of the initial community.


Rwanda and Burundi have been members since 2007 and South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia could join in the future.

However, tensions, especially between political leaders, remain.


Today, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni strikes the image of a leader who has always been there.

He was the chairman of Heads of State summit on November 30, 1999 when, together with Kenya’s Moi and Tanzania’s Mkapa, they signed the treaty to revive the unity bid after the 23-year hiatus.

“Nothing can put asunder that which God has put together,” records quote President Museveni as exhorting his colleagues two years later during the Kisumu centenary celebrations.


“As EAC leaders, we should be seen more often in public together to hammer the regional integration message home.”

Mr Moi famously used the centenary event to lift Kisumu to city status, not only to psychologically reward his political ally of the day, Raila Odinga, but also to symbolically prepare the lakeside town for the anticipated regional opportunities.

Ten years down the line, the rotational calendar has thrust Museveni to the chair of EAC heads of State Summit. He has been there since November last year, but the indelible words he uttered in 2001 have only come back to haunt his leadership.


The EAC house may have expanded to include Rwanda and Burundi with a combined GDP of $84.7 billion, but cracks have developed right in the middle with Uganda and Tanzania seen to be leading different formations.


Today, the EAC is at the cusp of serious fallout as dynamics shift. Whereas political leaders pledged from the very onset to manage the personality and ideological clashes to prevent the 1977-type collapse, the current discord revolves around economic calculations.

It has everything to do with what is increasingly seen as Tanzania’s overly cautious steps.

It all began in 2005 when the Tanzanian government officials joined their Kenyan and Ugandan counterparts to negotiate a customs union protocol.

Economic pillars

The idea was to build a single customs territory within which goods from any of the member states would circulate freely, while those from non-members would attract similar tax treatment at the borders.

Though a relatively bigger economy than Uganda (Uganda’s GDP was $8.3 billion at the time compared to Tanzania’s $10.5 billion), Tanzania would not agree to share customs territory with Kenya (GDP$15.5 billion at the time.


The fear (also echoed by the private sector in Uganda) was that Kenya’s stronger economic pillars would overrun those of neighbours.

At the end of the long-drawn talks, Kenya committed to immediately scrap taxes on goods from the two states that come into its territory.

Ugandans negotiated for a 10 per cent tariff on Kenya’s goods to be phased out in five years, while Tanzania would only sign the protocol after it was allowed to apply a steeper tariff of 25 per cent on goods from Kenya.

Still the implementation of the protocol faced hurdles as it turned out that Tanzania had already committed its economy to another customs union as a member of Southern African Development Community (SADC), whose other members include South Africa and DRC.


If the EAC waters remained clear after the first stage of integration, it was muddied in the 2006/7 negotiations for a common market protocol meant to open up the region for free movement of factors of production and professional services.


Tanzania used the talks to debunk the common thinking at the time, the untested idea that countries ought to band together simply on the account of shared histories.


The EAC treaty envisages a political federation at the end of the tunnel, but Tanzania apparently favours a kind of integration that leaves its sovereignty intact.


Under a campaign led by then EAC Affairs Minister Amason Kingi, Kenya unsuccessfully lobbied for change of the bloc’s decision making model from consensus to simple majority.


This push turned out to be rather divisive. Kenya had to change tack in response to Tanzania’s influence in the bloc affairs.

With regional treaty expressly recognising Tanzania had the de facto headquarter for the EAC, Mr Kingi’s team pushed for an arrangement where the remaining organs would be hosted by other member states.


That way, only the secretariat would remain in Arusha as the rest of members – including Rwanda and Burundi – took up the remaining organs like East African Court of Justice and East African Legislative Assembly.


The same would apply to regional institutions like Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation, Inter-University Council for East Africa and the East African Development Bank.


But with President Kikwete as the chairman of Heads of State summit and Mr Juma Mwapachu (fellow countryman) as Secretary-General, the campaigns soon ran out of steam. While Mr Kikwete used one-year leadership of the bloc to confront stereotypes and publicly appeal to Tanzanian’s to embrace it, no reforms have been taken collectively to date by the five countries to implement the common market protocol.

All this time, fingers have been pointed in the direction of Tanzania.

Coalition of the willing

History appears to be repeating itself in the sunset year of his presidency. A schism has developed once again, pitting Tanzania (and Burundi) against the rest of the members (including applicant South Sudan).


Mr Museveni — the only founder president still sitting in the Summit — has dedicated most part of his 2012/2013 tenure as the organ’s chairperson to cobble up a faction that includes Rwanda and Kenya.


Through a trilateral pact signed in June, the three states have agreed to a tight timeline for implementing deals covered by the Common Market Protocol.


Out of the deals, the single tourist visa and single customs territory, which are set to come into force from January, imply ceding a bit of sovereignty. Yet on the surface, the new discord has sometimes played out as a disagreement between Rwanda and Tanzania over DRC conflict and subsequent expulsion of refugees from Kagera region of Tanzania.


A few weeks ago, President Kikwete broke his silence about the unfolding events. At a televised address to Tanzanian parliament, he accused his summit colleagues of doing things behind his back.


At the next Heads of State summit planned for end of this month, President Museveni will pass the baton of the bloc’s leadership to him, for the last time. The fate of an EAC as defined in the 1999 treaty depends squarely on what he does with the baton.

But as the leaders haggle and bicker, the people and business in the region are moving on.

Education is one of the most integrated sectors in the region today.

In Uganda, for example, Kenyan students make up the biggest component of foreign university students.


At the border counties like Bungoma, Busia, Migori, Narok and Taita Taveta, thousands of Ugandan and Tanzanian pupils cross the border daily into Kenya for their education.


At Kenya’s elite schools like Molo’s St Andrews, Turi, any visiting day will witness more Uganda and Tanzania registered vehicles than even Kenyan.


Private companies in the media, banking and manufacturing sectors have regional operations and share professionals across the borders.


Indications are that this level of grassroots cooperation is bound to increase in the future. Then the political class could be compelled to follow the people.