EAC welcomes Raila’s offer to mediate

Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga PHOTO|FILE 

By Zephania Ubwani and Frank Kimboy ,The Citizen

Posted  Thursday, November 7  2013 at  00:00

In Summary

“I am not aware of Mr Raila Odinga’s offer to help mediating in the EAC crisis but the truth is that there are issues that must be addressed between us and our partners in the region,”

Arusha/Dodoma.The East African Community (EAC) yesterday welcomed the offer by former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga to reconcile Tanzania and its partners in the bloc. However, an EAC spokesman was quick to note that the situation has not reached a point necessitating such an intervention.

“The doors are open for those who want to reconcile warring parties. But the situation has not reached a situation needing such intervention”, said the Community spokesperson Mr Owora Richard-Othieno.

Mr Odinga proposed on Tuesday that a panel of statesmen should be formed to mediate the EAC conflict that has seen Tanzania threatening to part ways with Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and form a coalition with Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and that he was ready to sit in such a panel.

Mr Richard-Othieno told The Citizen late yesterday that always, the EAC has room for eminent persons such as retired presidents and former secretaries general to assist in resolving contentious issues threatening to break up the regional bloc.

But the minister for East Africa Cooperation Mr Samuel Sitta, insisted yesterday that there were serious differences between Tanzania on one side and Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda on the other, which needed patching up.

“I am not aware of Mr Raila Odinga’s offer to help mediating in the EAC crisis but the truth is that there are issues that must be addressed between us and our partners in the region,” Mr Sitta told The Citizen on the sidelines of the Parliament sitting in Dodoma.

For his part, Mr Richard-Othieno told The Citizen that the purported row between Tanzania and other partner states over the former’s apparent isolation by the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ has been adequately addressed by the recent ministerial meeting in Bujumbura.

During the meeting of Sectoral Council on EAC Affairs and Planning in the Burundi capital on Friday last week, all the five partner states – Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda – committed themselves to strengthening regional integration.

“If what is seen as Tanzania’s isolation is a crisis, then this has been well addressed by that meeting. At the Secretariat, we are guided by that ministerial session and have to comply with its decisions,” he said.

He added that the ministers had already made the decision on how to address concerns raised by Tanzania and, to some extent, Burundi, of being sidelined in key regional projects by the “Coalition of the Willing’ comprising Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.

According to him, what was decided in Bujumbura would be presented to the EAC Council of Ministers, which is the policy organ of the Community and the EAC Heads of State Summit slated for Kampala on November 30.

The former Kenyan PM was quoted by newspapers yesterday as saying he would volunteer to reconcile Tanzania and its neighbours over some outstanding issues which, according to him, threaten the EAC. Mr Odinga cautioned that the exclusion of Tanzania in the regional bloc would not benefit any of the three countries now operating as “Coalition of the Willing” or another proposed coalition involving Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

t Mr Othieno, who is the Head of EAC Corporate Affairs and Public Information Department, said the “crisis” facing EAC at present was still within “manageable levels” and that there was no cause for alarm.

He further elaborated that the regional organisation also has its own mechanisms for resolving differences among the partner states. “At the moment, such matters are best handled by the Political Federation Department,” he said, stressing: “ We don’t have much crisis here”.

The official allayed fears that the “Coalition of the Willing’ would break the Community or isolate other member states to an extent of forcing them to quit EAC.

“There had been numerous bilateral and trilateral agreements between EAC member states for years”, he said, emphasising, however, that projects currently being initiated or whose implementation are being speeded up by Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya had not blocked other countries.

Neither the EAC Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera, nor his deputy SG in charge of Political Federation, Mr Charles Njoroge, could be reached to comment on the new developments. They were said to be busy preparing for the forthcoming high level meetings in Kampala.

SOURCE: THE CITIZEN