Emmanuel Kisumo
In Summary
Add the walkout of EALA legislators, who
opposed a proposal of stopping the rotation of the meeting sessions
among all partner states. So here we are.
Since May, the Great Lakes Region has been
gripped with the on-going diplomatic spat between Tanzania and Rwanda.
It all began with the suggestion made by President Kikwete to his
counterparts of Rwanda, Uganda, and the DR Cong to talk to the armed
groups opposed to their governments.
Uganda’s response, to paraphrase a prominent
columnist “maintains a pagan and cynical pragmatism about such things.
When the lights are out and no one is watching they will talk to
anybody”. The response from DR Congo was a mixed one; where the
government continued to fight the armed groups while at the same time
saying it was “open to talks”. The fury in Rwanda’s response was
palpable.
Somehow, the EAC and its future got dragged into the mix, and now the region is rife with prospects of a “collapsing” EAC.
Those holding this view point to a number of
meetings and a conference of Heads of State in which Tanzania got
snubbed. It started with a “mini-summit” of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda
who met in Uganda in late June around the time when US President Obama
landed in Dar es Salaam. The reason given for Tanzania’s absence back
then was that it was “busy preparing for Obama’s visit”. This was
strange because a representative could have sufficed.
Then came the meeting of the International
Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) of Heads of State held in
Kenya, and Tanzania was not invited even though it is a member of the
ICGLR. Then in August, the three leaders who had met in Uganda, this
time met in Mombasa, Kenya, to inaugurate the construction of various
infrastructures to link those countries. This time Burundi was
represented, and South Sudan also attended.
The mailman apparently didn’t pick up any letters for Tanzania. It wasn’t invited.
Add the walkout of EALA legislators, who opposed a
proposal of stopping the rotation of the meeting sessions among all
partner states. So here we are.
Amid all this wrangling, the other EAC member
states have been conspicuously silent about the whole matter. Not many
observers of the region have said anything about this either. It is an
open secret that the other EAC partner states have long resented the
attitude of Tanzania to regional integration. Tanzania is perceived as a
stumbling block to fast track political integration. It is also seen as
being aloof or just distant and neither is a good place to be.
President Kikwete’s trigger suggestion over the
DRC situation might have sounded condescending to the other EAC
countries. It is long held practice among African leaders to not
“lecture” themselves, that is a prerogative of the West and President
Kikwete should have known better.
With Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his
Deputy, William Ruto, fighting a legal and political battle in The Hague
(ICC indictment); Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda also have their own
demons - armed groups. Did President Kikwete forget “his place” and
Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s response was intended to firmly remind
him of his place?
For some years now, President Kagame has not show
up in Dar es Salaam for national celebrations or events to which Rwanda
was invited, instead he has been sending a representative, mostly his
Prime Minister. Similarly, Kikwete was nowhere to be seen in Kigali for
the events he was invited to attend; he too has been sending a
representative.
This suggests that the diplomatic spat was a long
time coming, and like molten materials bubbling beneath finally found a
fissure and violently erupted on the surface.
There is also a floating suggestion that the “coalition of the
three” are moving the EAC’s centre to the North, and that South Sudan
could replace Tanzania in the future. Well, that will have to wait many
years down the line, for South Sudan is a long way to stability,
literacy, and fertile land for agricultural development.
Either way, regardless of where one stands on the
issue, the conspicuous silence of the other EAC partner states suggest
that there is more, so much more, to this story than what the
shopkeepers have put on display.
Perhaps time might help us bring some of it to
display as well. Until then it is wise to brace ourselves for more bumps
on the regional integration road.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
