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TRANSITION: Mkapa, Museveni and Kibaki exchange instruments of the protocol on the establishment of the E. A. Customs Union |
BY VISION REPORTER
THE East African countries — Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda — and possibly Rwanda and Burundi — will be under one president by 2013, if a proposal by a group of experts is effected.
The presidents of the three countries, Mwai Kibaki, Benjamin Mkapa and Yoweri Museveni, meet in four months time to decide on the proposal made by a committee they mandated to study mechanisms for “Fast Tracking the Political Federation of East Africa.”
The committee of six, chaired Kenya’s Attorney General Amos Wako, presented a report of their findings to the three presidents during the Sixth Summit of the East African Community in Arusha, Tanzania, Friday.
The far-reaching proposals by the committee provide for the launching of the Political Federation of East African in January, 2010.
On receiving the report, the three presidents announced they would be meeting in March 2005 to pronounce themselves on it.
Before then, respective governments will hold wide consultations on the proposals.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said
during the summit that at the March
meeting they might even decide on a date earlier than 2010 to effect a political federation.
The Wako committee, on which Movement Secretariat Economic Director Dr. Ezra Suruma and Prof. Sam Tulyamuhika represented Uganda, was the brainchild of President Museveni.
At an extraordinary Nairobi Summit of the East African Community in August 2004, Museveni sold the idea to Kibaki and Mkapa that they needed to “Fast Track” the political federation of the region.
Once in place, the Wako committee sought views from all the three countries as a basis for their report, which provides for a rotating presidency between 2010 and 2012, before East Africans directly elect their president in 2013.
By this time, according to the proposals, an East African Constitution, approved through a popular referendum, would have been put in place. In addition, the borders of the three countries would have been opened, with citizens issued East African passports and identity cards.
At the same time, the region would have attained a full economic union, with a common currency. Meanwhile, the Wako committee recommends that in the immediate, the three countries should charge other East Africans the rates they charge their nationals at tourist sites and hotels.
Similarly, fishing on Lake Victoria should be borderless and East Africa should become a single airspace by August 2005, so as to cut air travel cost within the region.
In order to effectively implement the fast tracking of the federation, the committee proposes that each country should appoint a specific minister for East African federation to be resident in Arusha, the de facto capital.
Furthermore, the committee recommends the appointment of an eminent East African to closely oversee the preparatory stages of the federation and advise the leaders.
Each country should directly remit a percentage of its national revenue to an account for East African federation to meet the increased expenses of fast tracking the union.
The proposals recommend a radical restructuring the East African Secretariat, currently headed by Uganda’s Amanya Mushega, so that it can cope with the volume of work involved in preparing for the political federation.
Presidents Museveni, Kibaki and Mkapa were visibly elated on receiving the report.
“It’s the beginning of the process of emancipating black people from perpetual weakness,” Museveni said.
He decried the tendency among black people “to worship” strong nations, such as the United States and China, while showing little enthusiasm in building up their own strength.
Kibaki described the report as “wonderful”. Saying he had been at the centre of earlier failed efforts of create an East African Federation, he urged East Africans not to make the new push stillborn.
“I hope the East African federation will be realised in my lifetime,” said the 73-year-old president.
Mkapa cautioned against debating the Wako committee proposals in a manner that will jeopardise a positive decision by the leaders in March 2005. He said they were determined to bring about the federation “at the risk of losing the current sovereignty”.
At the Arusha summit, Burundi President Domitien Ndayizeye and Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza passionately appealed for the immediate formal admission of their countries into the East African Community.
Kibaki assured them it was a done deal, only waiting the instituting of an elected government in Burundi so the two countries join the community. The Burundi presidential elections are set for April 2005, while Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame became an elected leader last year.
Published on: Sunday, 28th November, 2004
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