{UAH} Coalition of the Willing had EAC heads rolling - East Africa News - thecitizen.co.tz
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Coalition of the Willing had EAC heads rolling - East Africa News
Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya (left), Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, and Paul Kagame of Rwanda shortly after they signed the Protocol on the Establishment of the East African Monetary Union at Speke Bay Resort Munyonyo in Kampala recently. The three presidents were behind what came to be known as the Coalition of the Willing within the EAC block. PHOTO|FILE
By Zephania Ubwani,The Citizen Bureau Chief
Posted Thursday, January 2 2014 at 09:52
Arusha. It was yet another challenging year for the East African Community, a regional bloc of five member states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.
In the past, the nagging problems had been the slow speed with which the member countries jointly or individually took in the implementation of what had been agreed upon and signed by all parties.
This was not the case for 2013. It is the year that for the first time saw the bloc, which was revived in the 1990s after the first one collapsed in 1977, starting to develop cracks which, in essence, threatened its survival.
The trouble, if some analysts would call it that, started in the middle of the year with the coming onto the scene by the Coalition of the Willing (CoW), an alliance of three member countries; Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. The trio came together ostensibly to fast-track regional projects which they thought were delayed by the heavy bureaucracy within the EAC and some member countries they accused of being "not serious with regional integration issues."
The new developments took the Arusha-based EAC by surprise. It was immediately after the first summit of Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania hosted by President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe, that left the Arusha bureaucrats guessing. Neither the secretary general nor the directorate of information, known for a chain of well-crafted press releases, could say anything on an event the Community should have played a role.
Initially, some observers thought it was one of those summits for which one or two regional leaders or country could miss for one reason or another. There is nothing strange about that. Some presidents have skipped summits in succession without any eyebrows being raised.
During their Entebbe summit at the end of June, Presidents Museveni, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, pledged their commitment to regional integration, particularly in the development of infrastructure.
At face value, one could not have been surprised by the meeting. The three countries are linked by what is called the northern transport corridor; from the port of Mombasa through to Nairobi and Kampala all the way to Kigali and beyond.
In some way, the new partnership had also been caused by new developments such as the dredging of the port of Lamu and its proposed road and railway links with the hinterland, the coming onto the scene of the oil-rich South Sudan and the new oil wells in Uganda.
Conspicuous absentees to the summit were Tanzania and Burundi. Then came another summit of the triumvirate in Mombasa two months later (end of August). With the latter, it was as if the EAC or rather the harmony that had existed among the five countries, was coming to an end. Two members of the bloc; Tanzania and Rwanda were already at loggerheads on a number of issues, one among them the expulsion of Rwandese (and other people from other countries) who had no proper documents while living in Tanzania.
Authorities in Kigali took the issue seriously, although their government did not retaliate. It was a kind of 'war of words' between the media of the two neighbouring countries which had everybody worried about the strained relations.
Back to Mombasa. The summit agreed on the construction of a standard gauge railway line from Mombasa that would link the three countries, and possibly South Sudan as well as pipelines from Uganda and South Sudan oil fields to the markets; be they within eastern Africa or elsewhere.
The three countries were 'loud and clear' on why they had been forced to form a new alliance; they wanted to speed up infrastructure projects so that they could serve as a catalyst for economic integration of the region. They went further; fast-track the East African Political Federation. In fact, for the latter, an ad hoc committee was formed to work on the matter almost immediately.
The CoW initiatives received wide coverage from the media in practically all the countries, including Tanzania, which apparently was the one which felt much snubbed probably than any other party.
Officially, Tanzania did not make public any statement on the new developments although the outspoken EAC Cooperation minister Samuel Sitta made occasional remarks in the media.
President Museveni, believed to be one of the main architects of the alliance, was then challenged by the media to explain why some countries were being sidelined in regional matters or programmes.
The Ugandan leader did not dwell much on what the EAC secretariat had been saying whenever requested to comment on the isolation of Burundi and Tanzania by Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya in what essentially were regional projects or programmes.
The Arusha bureaucrats had maintained that the EAC Treaty has room for bilateral and trilateral agreements between member states which did not necessarily have to involve all parties to the pact. Not so convincing in the spirit of sustaining harmony and trust in the union.
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