East African Cooperation minister Samuel Sitta addresses a news
conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday. With him is permanent secretary
Joyce Mapunjo. PHOTO | MICHAEL JAMSON
By George Njogopa
Posted Thursday, September 19 2013 at 00:00
Posted Thursday, September 19 2013 at 00:00
In Summary
Tanzania is an active member of the Southern
Africa Development Co-operation (SADC), comprises South Africa, Zambia,
Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Dar es Salaam.The emergence of the Coalition of
the Willing--which comprises Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda--has sent ripples
in the East African Community, with Tanzania dismissing it as an “act of
isolation”.
Yesterday, the minister for East African Community
Affairs, Mr Samwel Sitta, warned that the move by the three countries
was against the spirit of integration and poses a threat to the future
of the EAC. “We will not be bullied into fast-tracking the integration
because it will not be sustainable,” Mr Sitta noted.
This is the first such strong and broad statement
by Tanzania since the three countries met in Kampala in July and started
planning grand regional infrastructure projects.
The leaders of the three countries met in Kenya’s
coastal town of Mombasa last month and resolved to fast-track political
federation. Experts then reportedly met in Kigali last week to advance
negotiations on how to implement the directive of their heads of state
and a committee was created to spearhead the federation process.
Mr Sitta told reporters yesterday that the move by
the Coalition was discouraging and ran counter to the original
integration spirit of the five-member East African Community. It is also
a general and wrong interpretation of article 7(3) of the EAC protocol
that allows member countries to have separate special-interest
engagements, he added.
“The areas of cooperation the three countries are
working on are no different from the ones we collectively discussed
during the chairmanship of then-Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki,” Mr Sitta
added. “If they have all of a sudden chosen to isolate us, all we can do
is leave them alone and wish them well.”
Tanzania is an active member of the Southern
Africa Development Co-operation (SADC), comprises South Africa, Zambia,
Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Yesterday, Mr Sitta hinted that Tanzania might
never join integration initiatives that would have been taken by the
three countries without its involvement.
His statement came a few weeks after the East
African Community Council of Ministers officially sought clarification
on why the three countries were running a parallel integration agenda.
Early this month, the council directed its
chairperson, Uganda’s EAC Affairs minister Shem Bageine, to prepare full
information on the blossoming alliance between Kenya and its landlocked
neighbours Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
“The Council requested the chairperson of the
council to provide more information on these developments to the Council
at its 28th Meeting,” the ministers said after a meeting earlier this
month.
Last week, the three countries initiated talks to
introduce a single tourist visa from 2014 in order to enhance the flow
of tourists across the three countries without additional fees.
Infrastructure development and improvement is also on the agenda.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
