The East African economic integration, important for me, my country and region

By: Jerry Okungu

[ Posted On: 2009-11-10 ]

As a young boy, I enjoyed travelling freely across East Africa. In those days, there was what was called the East African Common Services that converged transport and communication systems across the three partner states. There was one currency, one driving license and one travel document for the entire region.

However, in a decade after signing the East African Community protocol in 1967, the community broke up due to irreconcilable political differences among the partner states. However, 22 years later, another treaty was signed that revived the defunct economic block.

As I write this essay, structures for restoring the economic block to its original form are slowly falling in place.

Almost five years ago, three founding member states launched the East African Customs Union that has tremendously increased trade among them. This milestone will be followed on November 20, 2009 when member states will sign the protocol establishing the East African Common Market. The beauty of this event is that it will happen at a time when two more members; Rwanda and Burundi have joined the now expanded economic block.

This move will change the lives of many people in East Africa. With the protocol in place, nationals of the five member states will enjoy freedom of movement of goods, persons, services, manpower and capital without the current restrictions. It will mean that as a Kenyan, I can live and work in any of the five states without the requirement o register as an alien. I, like many East Africans will be entitled to social services such as healthcare, education and state protection without any form of discrimination or harassment.

With the commencement of Common Market, transport systems like railways, road and air will be synchronized and most likely there will be open skies with the possibility of making air fares cheaper than they are at the moment. With a bit of further negotiations, there are likely to be single authorities running communications systems such as telecom, postal services and a common electricity grid that will definitely lower tariffs in many parts of East Africa.

As we move to the implementation of the East African Common Market, there is already progress on talks regarding the adoption of a Common Currency for the region that is expected to be implemented by 2012. If this happens, East Africans will for the first time have a Common Central Bank with one Governor in 42 years, a milestone that will change the way we do business in this part of Africa.

As we move to reap the benefits of this development, there is talk of having a common electoral system to harmonize our election processes, a standby brigade to look after our regional security and to strengthen the already existing East African Court of Justice to take a more active role in solving intra-stare disputes.

With these positive developments it is not farfetched to anticipate an East African federal state in 2020

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

About The Author: Jerry Okungu is an online publisher and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Okungu specializes in African and International Affairs, and has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya, the rest of Africa and the world at large. Visit Jerry's blog at: africanewsonline.blogspot.com/ . More articles written by Jerry Okungu at: this location

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