{UAH} Tanzania ‘formally’ isolated from EAC - National - thecitizen.co.tz
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Tanzania 'formally' isolated from EAC - National
He said currently, each of the five member states – Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda – has its own fertiliser and seed policies, which made it difficult for the regional organisation to implement some projects due to lack of harmonisation.
Dar es Salaam/ Kampala. First it was "the coalition of the willing", involving Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya; now it is the "federation of the willing" which has also side-lined Tanzania in the latest bid to fast-track the proposed East African Community political federation.
Yesterday in Kampala Uganda, four EAC member countries, namely Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi met to discuss the draft of the constitution that would govern the federation.
The two-day forum is expected to reach a consensus on the form, structure as well as the fundamental principles of the roadmap for the envisaged unity. The high-level gathering was in adherence to a directive issued by the first Infrastructure Summit held in Entebbe on 25 June 2013, where Heads of State of Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda agreed to set up a committee that would fast-track the EA political federation by developing a draft constitution.
In this meeting, Tanzania wasn't invited in what was seen as a move to isolate it ahead of the quick march towards a political federation.
Even Burundi, which had earlier refused to join Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, has now joined "the coalition of the willing" leaving, Tanzania in the cold.
Opening the meeting, which brought together constitution making experts from the four countries, Uganda's minister for Internal Affairs, General Aronda Nyakairima said" "This political process comes in the backdrop of a number of historical initiatives, as informed by the debate on the importance of the federation. And this idea is not new, on 10th May 1964 in Dar es Salam, during the meeting Mzee Nyerere stated: it is better that two countries should federate now, if three cannot.''
The Internal minister who also doubles as the fast tracking project chair told delegates: "The necessity and the urgency of the work before us, does remind me of one man's great wisdom, 'Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past."
At the end of the meeting, experts from the four countries are expected to come up with a framework of the proposed political federation, as guided by the work plan set during the Ministerial Session on the Committee of Fast Tracking Political Federation, held on September 12, in Kampala.
The technical team, according to details gathered by The Citizen, has been appointed to draft an East African Federation Constitution.
Defend the move, the Ugandan minister said: "Probably this long-standing cooperation history and its benefits to the region is inspired by Mzee Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in the 1960s, when he proposed that the independence of Tanganyika be delayed until Kenya and Uganda got independent, so that together they could form a federation on simultaneous attainment of independence."
Indeed, by 1963, three countries had attained their independence and had declared the establishment of an East African Federation, which came into being by the Treaty of June 1967, he said adding:
"This treaty established joint ownership and operation of services managed by the East African Railways and Harbours; the East African Airways; the East African Posts and Telecommunications; the Inter-University Council for East Africa; and the East African Currency Board. There was also the Court of Appeal for East Africa and the East African Legislative Assembly."
He further noted that the EAC suffered a setback in 1977. Despite this hiccup, he said, the region managed to pick up the pieces and built on them in the years between 1984 and 2001, thereby reviving the community and better still, expanding it to five members from three.
"In particular to our meeting today, the genesis is traced to the Summit of Heads of States of East African Countries, held on the 28th August 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya… In this Summit, the Heads of States resolved 'to expedite and compress the process of integration so that their ultimate goal of a political federation is achieved through a fast track mechanism.'"
After the 2004 Nairobi meeting, the Summit further decided to appoint a committee to examine how this fast tracking would be achieved.
Consequently, a committee of six experts – two from each partner state was appointed to conduct a study on possibilities of fast-tracking the East African Political Federation.
"In doing this, the Summit invoked Article 123, Para 6, which empowers the Heads of States "to initiate the process towards the establishment of a political federation….by directing the Council to undertake the process," the Ugandan minister said.
However, the non-implementation of the reports submitted by a committee chaired by former Kenya's attorney general is what triggered the subsequent summits, namely, the Trilateral Summit held at Entebbe Uganda on June 25 and the Mombasa Summit held on August 28 which gave this meeting the mandate to steer the unified efforts towards fast-tracking the political federation process.
WHY POLITICAL FEDERATION?
He said that from the views of the coalition of the willing, which has lately attracted Burundi, securing the future of East Africa is a noble and visionary undertaking, that is even considered by more developed countries, such as China, India, USA, Russia, German, etc, in their continued strive to integrate and/or federate in form of regional mechanisms like the NATO, EU, ASEAN, G8, G20, and BRICS, among others, constantly guaranteeing and securing their respective futures through regional arrangements and organisations.
The minister concluded: "Looking further at one fervent supporter of economic globalisation, the US had to embrace political federation in order to consolidate its economic development to the toll of being a global empire.
"Neglecting this fact therefore is conquering with the view that the state is rather negative to the process and hence development should be left to those actors accumulating profit. Political Federation is a sure way of securing the future of our region."
The deputy minister for East African Community Cooperation, Dr Abdulla Juma Abdulla Saadalla, told The Citizen yesterday that Tanzania is aggrieved by the four countries going ahead with the political federation in contravention of the EAC Treaty.
"We were clearly not invited. And this is incorrect because the formation of the political federation is provided for in the EAC Treaty, for which Tanzania is a signatory. And the Treaty doesn't give permission to a trilateral group or quartet to forge ahead without the rest," Dr Saadalla noted.
He said Tanzania has already raised the issue with the EAC Council of Ministers, which, in turn, has written to the EAC Secretariat to demand explanation on why Tanzania was being side-lined in key issues.
The Kampala meeting which ends today didn't also not included representatives from the EAC Secretariat, The Citizen independently established.
"We will also raise the issue with the Summit next month. We want these issues to be explained so that we know where we stand," Dr Saadalla added.
Tanzania's concerns which need to be explained, according to the deputy minister, include the controversy over the EAC Treaty. "The four countries should state which treaty or protocol they are using to forge ahead without Tanzania," Dr Saadalla noted.
The other issue is on resources. It must be made clear what resources the four countries are using to chart forward with their negotiations over the Political Federation. "If they are side-lining Tanzania and are still using EAC resources, then that would not be right," he noted.
The other matter is that if the EAC Secretariat is not involved, then the unity that the four countries want to create would be something else and not an EAC federation, he pointed out.
"They can as well allow Egypt, Sudan and similar other countries to join, because after all it is not the EAC Federation at all. And if that is the case then they are free to go ahead," Dr Saadalla noted.
Had they been invited to the negotiations on the Political Federation the position of Tanzania would have remained the same; opposing the fast-tracking of the political federation.
"It is not about us leaders. It is about the people. If Tanzanians oppose fast-tracking as the survey conducted in 2007/08 indicated. We must follow the due process after making sure that the Customs Union and the Common Market have worked. The Monetary Union must also be in place first before we embark on the Political Federation," Dr Saadalla noted.
Reached for comments yesterday foreign affairs and international cooperation minister Bernard Membe said he was not aware of the meeting; if there was such a meeting, he was sure the secretariat for the East African Community was involved.
"Look," he argued, "the conditions for such discussions are very open….it should be initiated by the East African Community Secretariat and it should participate fully in this process. As of my knowledge I know the secretariat is not in the said meeting."
He said such a process of reaching a political federation after being pioneered by the secretariat should also reach at the minister's council before the heads of state meet for the summit.
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Tanzania--formally--isolated-from-EAC/-/1840392/2032192/-/24rmly/-/index.html
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