{UAH} Is the EAC just a poor man’s club with attitude? - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Is-the-EAC-just-a-poor-man-s-club-with-attitude-/-/434750/2093966/-/1vw4cn/-/index.html

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Is the EAC just a poor man's club with attitude? - Comment

This year, the East African Media Summit (EAMS) made its way to Kampala. Well, the EAMS, among other things, is a pro-integration bonanza.

There, while speakers will whine sometimes about some aspect of regional integration that isn't going well, everyone will be believer in the East African Community church.

It was therefore refreshing to hear a contrarian view from Ugandan commentator and publisher of the Independent magazine, Andrew Mwenda.

In his view, East Africa was a wrongheaded idea, and not the best way to improve the economic lot of the region. First, he argued, unlike the rich nations, when poor countries form economic blocs, the better-off partners benefit more.

Thus while the Common Market grants a company access to the Burundi market, which has poor banking services, few skilled workers, and dodgy infrastructure, it is better off setting up shop in Kenya where it will get all those more readily, and then exporting to Burundi.

Because we are all poor (and had to run to the Germans to build a new headquarters for the EAC in Arusha), unlike the European Union where richer members like Germany, France, Netherlands, Britain poured money into Ireland or Portugal and lifted them up, here we share our poverty.

Portugal and Ireland had people who were as skilled as the French, but were cheaper to hire. In this case, it was more profitable for a firm to locate in the poorer member state.

This, Mwenda argued, is one of the real reasons the first EAC broke up, because Kenya was seen to have benefited disproportionately. In short, poor nations should leave integration alone — until they become wealthy.

Former EAC secretary-general Amanya Mushenga, a staunchly pro-integration man, was still depressed by examples of the idiocies in the Community. He had been in the Burundian capital Bujumbura, and left his hotel at 6.30am to catch a RwandAir flight to Entebbe, Uganda. The flight landed him at Entebbe at 10am, and Amanya was home.

Or was he? The RwandAir flight was enroute to Kigali, and it was only allowed to pick passengers, not to drop them off. So Amanya remained on the flight, and it flew him to Kigali.

It was a lost cause, so he got off, spent a few hours with friends in Kigali, and caught the RwandaAir flight that was now properly going to Uganda. Toward 6pm, he was back in Entebbe, and now could alight and go home.

And then there was the story of the workers of a multinational firm doing a project on the Uganda side of the border, and another across in Tanzania. The workers on the Ugandan side have to pay $200 each every time they cross to work on the mirror project on the Tanzanian side as they are considered to be importing professional "services" into the country.

However, the narrator said, the Tanzanian Customs officers have Ugandan girlfriends, and when the women cross over to see them, despite the fact that they are importing "services" there, the officials don't impose the $200 professional fee on them.

Why not? First, they are being selfish. Second, they understand that it is a stupid rule but they have to please Dar es Salaam.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3

Is the EAC just a poor man's club with attitude? - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Is-the-EAC-just-a-poor-man-s-club-with-attitude-/-/434750/2093966/-/1vw4cn/-/index.html