Tensions rise as new EAC coalition emerges

Minister for East African Co-operation, Samuel Sitta speaks at press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday on ongoing operation to repatriate peoples who live illegal in Country. With hem is permanent secretary to the ministry Grace Mapunjo. PHOTO|MICHAEL JAMSON 

By George Njogopa

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.

The three countries also want to implement a passport-free travel zone which would allow their nationals to use identity cards or voter registration cards to travel from one state to another.

But Mr Sitta yesterday accused the three countries of embarking on a “political agenda” while well aware of the fact that a committee formed to look into the subject is due to submit its report to the heads of state summit in November.

Tanzania’s position is that approaching integration matters with the kind of haste championed by Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya was a recipe for disaster and it is not ready to bow to such pressure.

The EAC secretariat has denied any divisions, saying the treaty allows members to sign pacts for implementing milestones agreed at regional level as long as there was room for others to join when ready.

But Mr Sitta noted yesterday that implementing regional transport projects such as constructing the Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali standard gauge railway without Tanzania casts doubt on the commitment of the three countries to executing similar projects that run through Tanzania such as the Isaka-Kigali railway and the Uvinza Bujumbura railway.

SOURCE.: THE CITIZEN