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Should the East African Federation be fast-tracked or allowed to go stage by stage?

By: Jerry Okungu

[ Posted On: 2006-10-24 ]

Arusha, Tanzania -- The die is cast. The events of the last two years have set the ball rolling. People in the know confess that the time is now. Let us do it and get on with it. This belief is embedded in a significant Summit meeting that took place in Nairobi in August 2004. That was the Heads of State meeting that re-enforced the idea of fast tracking the East African Federation after realizing that the gradual approach was not working. It had earlier been mooted and debated by the East African Legislative Assembly as early as 2001. If the gradual approach was allowed to go on, as stipulated in the 1999 Treaty of the East African Community, chances were that the people of East Africa would lose interest while nationalists would dig in their heels and resist the political merger.

Fast tracking the East African Federation may take two scenarios concurrently. One is to carry on with the three processes of the Customs Union, the Common Market and the Monetary Union concurrently rather than step by step. This way the time to complete the processes may considerably be shortened to bring forward the fourth stage which is the political federation. The other scenario is where all those three stages are running concurrently while at the same time the modalities for a political federation are set in motion.

What we see happening today is the realization that yes, all these processes can move on without major interference or disruption of the lives of East Africans. If anything, there are millions of East Africans who have been asking for decades why the federation has never taken place. Most of this group is the older generation that tasted greater freedom under the East African Common Services and later under the East African Community either as young boys and girls or as young adults in the late '70s. And to tell you the truth, the difference between economic integration and political federation is an academic exercise that only the elite would like to pontificate on.

Most ordinary people in our region would care less whichever came first. All they care about is to be allowed to move, trade, fish, go to school and work freely in East Africa without the fear of arrests for being illegal immigrants, workers without work permits or aliens without papers! Their argument is really basic and it goes like this; how do you arrest a Tanzanian Maasai on Kenyan side just because he crossed over to attend his kin's burial or marriage ceremony across the border? Where is the logic in denying a Msamia permission to cross Busia border in order to bring maize from Uganda side in times of famine just because he has no passport or travel permit to cross and meet his relatives?

The two arguments for fast tracking or implementing the federation in stages are both valid only that the former may breed disinterest and allow negative forces to gain momentum. Right now, there are some among us who see red when they hear of the East African Federation.

They see red because of historical fears that have dogged us for nearly three decades.

The first collapse left a terrible taste in our mouths. There was a lot of bitterness all round, some for the wrong reasons, others for the right reasons. The experience was bitter and disheartening for many people for different reasons.

To the political class at the Summit level, the idea that they had failed to provide leadership was painful enough. They didn't have to go to the roof tops to express these feelings. It was felt all round.

Perhaps the one man who might have felt betrayed the most was Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

This was due to the fact that he was a founder true believer of the Community. More so, he was at the time of the collapse, the most sensible and sane member of the Summit. Apollo Milton Obote had been removed from power by Idi Amin five years earlier while Jomo Kenyatta was in his late 80s and was virtually senile. In any case Kenyatta's advanced age had forced him to delegate most of his executive powers to his inner cabinet many years before he died in his sleep a year after the collapse of the East African Community.

Ordinary East Africans also felt the pain. Thousands of workers who manned the East African Railways and Harbours, East African Power and Lighting Company, East African Posts and Telecommunications, East African Airways, East African Community Headquarters, East African University Council, East African Examination Council and many more institutions lost their jobs and livelihood. Some of these people who lost their benefits and have never been paid to this day.

Other than personal losses at individual level, there were many losses at the regional level that ordinary East Africans would like to see reinstituted. In real terms the region's population lost the Common Services and freedom of movement. More importantly, they saw negative nationalism creeping in their lives where nationals of Partner States in engaging in the blame game over the collapse started hate campaigns against one another. For the first time in their lives, nationals of Partner States were rounded up, deported or detained for being illegal aliens in countries they had assumed to be their homes for decades. Unhealthy and wasteful competition among East African States became evident including political destabilization against one another. As Amin claimed parts of Kenyan soil, he was threatening Tanzania with a possible military invasion. Before they realized it, the Kenya -Tanzania borders were closed!

This is the dark history of our region that the sensitization will have to deal with. The fears and suspicions created thirty years ago will have to be debated openly and candidly. The region's citizens will to be educated on the concept of federation, empowered to debate it and then be allowed to decide their destiny. The benefits are there but the onus is upon the leadership of the three Partner States to show the way and convince the population that the time for the East African Federation has come.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

Jerry Okungu is a freelance political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jerry also serves as a Board Director at The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Jerry has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya and the rest of Africa over the years. Other articles written by Jerry Okungu are available at this location

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