Africanews At the height of political animosity between Kenya and Tanzania, just after the collapse of the East African Community in 1977, the then Tanzanian president and the founder of the nation , Julius Kabarage Nyerere described Kenya as "a man eat man society". In retort, an enraged Kenyan attorney general then, Charles Mugane Njonjo described Tanzania as a "man eat nothing society" which by implication was worse off than a "man eat man society." The bone of contention then was the issue of the distribution of the assets and liabilities of the defunct regional cooperation.
The collapse of the body founded in 1967 had come sooner than expected and member countries could not quite agree on who owed who what. About two decades later, the animosity is no more. East African leaders have realised the need to forget whatever differences they may have had in the past and forge new links.
On March 14, 1996 Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Bejamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda officially launched the Secretariat of the East African Co-operation, marking the birth of a new spirit of co-operation among the East African States. The carnival occasion which took place in Tanzania's Arusha Stadium was the culmination of a series of high powered consultative meetings by representatives of the three countries.
These included the East African Commission meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 21, 1995; Heads of States meeting in Kampala, Uganda, on January 26, 1996 and the Fourth Permanent Tripartite Commission Meeting on March 12, 1996 in Arusha, Tanzania. The historic move could not have come at a more appropriate time. With the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the subsequent collapse of communism since 1993, the world has witnessed an almost unprecedented political and economic realignment.
Major economic powers in Europe, the USA and the Japanese have drifted more and more towards the former communist states in Eastern Europe, thus isolating Africa further. Africa has therefore had to grapple with the options of either uniting or perishing. The Secretariat is based at Arusha's International Conference Centre and is headed by Kenyan Francis Kirimi Muthaura, who is the Executive Secretary. His assistants are Tanzania's Fulgence Michael Kazaura, who will be in charge of planning programmes and Uganda's Dr. Sam Nahmya, whose docket has finance and administration.
"Never again",said President Mkapa of Tanzania, "shall we allow the seeds of disunity to wreck our unity and regional co-operation." "What we are doing today is an attempt to fulfill the wishes of the people of East Africa. It is a big challenge but we have to face it bearing in mind that what East Africans want to see today is action and not sweet words", he added. The East African Co-operation will strive to establish regional co-operation in the fields of transport and communications, trade, industry, investment, customs, security, immigration, energy, tourism, agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry and the environment.
To set the ball rolling, the Secretariat will have to draw an interim budget for March to June this year and another one for 1996/97 for inclusion in the national budgets for the three countries. It will also embark on early recruitment of professional staff to take charge of its various responsibilities. There will also be the formation of national and regional task forces for various operations. Kenya has been asked to convene the regional task force in July.
Already the three member states have each paid $393,645.33 contribution to give the Secretariat financial resources to enable it to carry out its functions. Once the Co-operation goes full throttle, the estimated 85 million East Africans hope to see the pre 1977 situation when the three countries jointly operated and owned railways, harbours, an airline network and postal, telecommunications and research services. When the East African Community broke up in 1977, these regional corporations were replaced by national corporations in the respective countries. Elements of new co- operation are already taking root in the traveling sector.
So far, the three countries have introduced separate counters at international airports to serve East Africans. Plans are underway to introduce standard travel documents for Eastern African nationals. With the expanded market, trade is expected to benefit a great deal particularly if the past is anything to go by. At Kenya's independence in 1963, for instance, Tanzania was Kenya's second largest export market, absorbing KSh207.4 million worth Kenyan goods annually. The figure was second only to United Kingdom's which then stood at KSh217,86 million in Kenyan imports.
Come 1965 and Tanzania's imports from Kenya were valued at KSh281.73 million annually. By 1974 when the defunct East African Community was fully operational, the figure rose to KSh383.96 million. However, it was Uganda that had inched to the number one spot with Kenyan imports worth KSh552.21 million. UK dropped to third spot with imports worth KSh367.80 million. When the Community collapsed in 1977, Kenya's exports to Tanzania fell to KSh196.45 million worth of goods. A year later, the figure was down to KSh55.14 million.
At that time, tension was high between the two countries and Tanzania closed her border with Kenya. Trade virtually came to a standstill between the two East African states. Later, it struggled to pick up but at a snail's pace. This saw Tanzania buy KSh125.51 million worth of Kenyan goods in 1981. Kenya's imports from Tanzania on the other hand were worth KSh58.4 million in 1963 when the former attained her independence from the British. The figure rose to KSh76.13 million in 1966 and KSh198.19million in 1974, when the East African Community was fully operational. In 1977, the year the regional co- operation collapsed, the figure dropped to a meager KSh2.05 million. By 1979 there was marginal recovery and Kenya imported goods worth KSh6.19 million.
As Tanzanian minister for foreign affairs Jakaya Kikwete noted, for the newly found co- operation to hold, it should be a "people-centered cooperation rather than a leaders-centered one". After all, leaders come and go but the region and the people are there to stay.
Finally after a delay of nearly three years, the East African Community was re-launched in March. Three years ago, all the preparation for the summit of the inauguration of the Community was in place, the documents and even the date. But we had to wait for three years for the summit to take relations between two presidents: Moi and Museveni. Was this also the main reason for the collapse of the community before? The same can be said for other African institutions and even countries. We are still in the period of personal rule and personal ownership of institutions. When rule is personalised then dissenting views or criticism is personalised.
In any case the same stress and strain which will lead to its collapse if the foundation is based on personal relations between the heads of states and governments? Parliaments have not so far been involved let alone civil society - religious organisations, intellectuals and even the business community not to mention the people, the bulk of whom live in the rural areas. The peoples basic needs and priorities do not necessarily coincide with that of the community.
The people are struggling for basic necessities of life, food, health, education, security and shelter particularly so in the urban areas. Will the community address these issues? The signs are the community will not be "people oriented" but is geared to respond to the global stimuli. Regionalisation is the newest fad, the trend in the world. Regional structures is for who? The danger is that, the Community could easily become one efficient profitable structure for the exploitation of the region by global players both local and international.
South East Asia is often quoted a successful story; but the success is due to other factors not regionalisation. Their success is due to the fact that they were able to meet the basic needs of their people - food, education and health. For the Community to succeed it must put these priorities at the top of the policy frame work. There is therefore a very important role organisations like churches with strong grassroots connection have to play.
The civil society and particularly the churches must take the initiative in transforming the organisation from leaders to people. Bethuel Kiplagat, the author of the above article is a former Permanent Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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