EAC charts course through turbulent times

The just ended Summit of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State concluded in Arusha with the endorsement of Kiswahili and French as additional official languages of the Bloc, besides English as well as urged five partners to conclude national consultations for political confederation constitution by June 30, 2025. A communique issued at the end of the Summit on November 30, 2024, sounded more like a wish list for 2025 and ultimately the realisation that a political federation was nowhere near the horizon as no partner state was apparently ready to cede total power to Arusha and turn the region into a single country. Getting “ultimately to a political federation” was the fourth and last pillar of the regional integration process since the EAC was revived in 1999. The others were a Customs Union, a Common Market and Monetary Union. The region has hammered out a Customs Union Protocol and a Common Market Treaty, but they are all yet to be effectively practised and adhered to. The region, for instance, is yet to become a fully single customs union territory. Those required to conclude domestic consultations for the EAC confederation constitution were Rwanda, Tanzania, DR Congo, South Sudan and newest partner state, Somalia. The Heads of State also directed the Council of Ministers to make recommendations for use of “variable geometry,” a regional integration terminology for flexibility among partners to join process at their own pace. Decisions of the EAC at both the Summit and Council of Ministers levels are through 100 per cent consensus, but the requirement is apparently snarling traction in the integration process. As such, the Summit also directed the Attorneys General or Ministers of Justice of the partner states to “conclude the proposal to amend rule 11 of the rules of procedure of the Summit on Quorum and advise the Summit” during its 25th meeting. In effect the Arusha Summit was attended by only five Heads of State. President Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi stayed home as did also President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo of DR Congo. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda hopped-in briefly before heading to the airport back home without attending the plenary session. However, Ndayishimiye sent his Vice, Prosper Bazombaza while Tshilombo sent a Special Envoy with a message which the Summit “considered during the meeting.” Observers were critical of the adoption of French as another working language for the Bloc known globally as the Kiswahili region. Some noted that using French would add to the hike in the Bloc’s administration costs as it would need to hire staff and generally create the right infrastructure for using a language the vast majority of East Africans do not speak. Others equated it to acquiescing to the dictates of neo-colonialism and feared there were machinations and undercurrents involved in adopting the language, given that France was at the time being booted from central and west Africa but ironically gaining, albeit a cultural foothold, in East Africa. All that was happening at a time when the Summit directed the Council to expedite the roadmap for a financing formula and sanctions against defaulters. Looked at broadly, the EAC appears to be navigating very tricky waters, almost reminiscent of the kind of conditions that led to breakup of the first EAC. “It is very worrisome if some partners can’t see eye to eye,” noted a person who did not want his name revealed for personal reason. However, it was not all doom and gloom. East Africans are well known for their resilience to come together as brothers. Whatever the case, “neighbours simply need some form of cooperation. There are no two ways about,” noted a retired civil servant who did not want his name revealed.