East African Community (EAC) is among
the two Regional Economic Blocs of African Economic Community (AEC) which have
attempted to adopt and implement the free movement of people. Although the
provision outligning the freedom of movement of factors of production was
signed and ratified by the EAC member states, the level of implementation of
such factors by the member States has not been uniform. The article thus uses the author's experience on a road trip
from Nairobi to Arusha through Oloitoktok/Tarakea border and Namanga One-Stop
Border Post to explain how Tanzania has implemented the provision on the
ground.
During my stay in
the other African country in Central Africa, most students from ECOWAS
used to boast of their Eonomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
passport that was implemented to necessitate the free movement of people within
the community.
Then, ECOWAS
students would just take a bus to Benin, togo, and then home and those from Nigeria
would just be worried of the bad road infrastructure before getting to their
villages. Some of us envied them knowing we could only eat chapati, nsima, kaugali and matoke if
we had enough money to pay for either Ethiopian airline or Rwanda air which
offered cheaper rates. Anyway, we chose to admire our brothers. However, a few
of us from EAC had the new EAC blue
passport which is more beautiful than the ECOWAS one as we used to joke.
The East African Community E-passport was introduced to complement the
Community’s Common Market Protocol which facilitates free
movement of people, goods, capital, labor, services and rights of
establishment and residence within the EAC member States.
Again, those from East Africa had something to boast of, knowing that the
community was the first one in Africa to establish an operational Common market
protocol.
However, the question was always whether what was written in those signed and ratified
protocols and provisions was really the same as what happened on the ground. Was movement of people of West Africa
really free among all the members of ECOWAS? If so, was Nigeria crossing its
Benin border in 2019 only to cut smuggling of illicit goods? Was Common Market
protocol provision of free movement of people in East Africa that free? If so,
was construction the only reason why Rwanda crossed its Gatuna border in
February 2019? Rwanda and Burundi has always had tensions which disrupt border
crossing with the President of Burundi urging EAC to intervene to address the
differences between the two countries in December 2018. According to the East
African paper, August 2019, the president of Burundi said ‘Burundi does not
harbor bad intentions: Rwanda does, and we will continue to say it’. It’s
a pity that the best performing regional community in Africa, with the same
language; Swahili and almost similar cultures is continually facing political issues that end up disrupting economic
integration.
Though I’m not a frequent traveler. I have had the
opportunity to take the bus crossing from Kenya to Uganda to Rwanda and at some
point, I thought free movement meant moving with your ID along the border
offices until I had the privilege to travel to Tanzania. I take the bus because
I’m looking for something, I’m learning something that I couldn't learn from
the books and experiencing things I couldn’t on a flight. So despite
being expensive, I really don’t prefer flights and this trip was not going to
be an exception. With a group of other Kenyans, we took one of the tour trucks
from Nairobi, Kenya to Moshi Tanzania.
Being mostly our first time to visit Tanzania, we were open-mined to ensure
something didn't slip past our hungry senses. It was a long journey than most of us expected but we were not getting
tired though we could take a nap when we felt like. It was time to clear from the Oloitiktok/Tarakea border.
One stop border post is not operational at Oloitoktok-Tarakea
border and so, we had to make two stops taking more time than we
imagined. Those of us who had passports and immunization cards found it easy to
get cleared at the Kenyan immigration offices as it was just a stamp of exit.
EAC exercises free movement of people and so, you don’t need a visa but a passport or temporsry permit msy be necessary to enter some of the member states Those without passports had applied for
temporary permit at Ksh 350 on e-citizen https://www.wikiprocedure.com/index.php/Kenya__Apply_for_a_Temporary_Movement_Permit downloaded it and attached a passport
photo which they then presented to the immigration officer at Oloitoktok point
of exit. A part from the temporary pass, they carried their national Identity
Cards. Immunization cards were issued at the border at Ksh 1500 after getting a
Yellow fever injection. I’m not sure if
corruption has affected this section of the governance making some citizens
just pay the amount and avoid the injection and if that is the case, I would
say we dig our own graves without being asked to do so. Imagine not having that
injection, having the card, then travelling to a topical-disease venerable
country!
Our journey to Moshi was inspiring, we got lost on
our way to Maragu falls and thus ended up at Mt. Kilimanjaro entrance
Instead of panicking, we all screamed of happiness hoping we could get
the chance to see and climb the mountain we mostly saw on textbooks and again
from more than 1000km away when it was time to snow. We headed to Marangu falls
which was not easy to reach and some of us who had not jogged for a long time
found it hard to climb back to the roads after getting ourselves down to the
fall. The water fall was almost 1.5km deep-down from the level land and that
meant you had to be prepared for hard work if you wanted to enjoy the water
fall.
It was fascinating, photos taken and videos, showed the happiness people
could bore and everyone even introverts had something to say and do at
that crazy deep waters. Just like 14 falls this is an international attaraction in Moshi, Tanzania. Soon we were out
towards Moshi town down to Keys Hotel where we did our dinner and later to Red
stone for the New Year’s Eve. Moshi night and day was beautiful. Swahili
language, East African food, and cheap drinks not forgetting the calm and
accommodating people of Moshi.
On the way to Arusha, we had to stop at Kikuletwa
springs to get a fish massage on our barely alive feet. The spring housed
everyone, from blacks to whites, Christians to Muslims, toddlers to adults.
Swahili was the main language as Kenyans and Tanzanians crowded the place with
a few Ugandans and Indians among others.
The waters were beautifu, cool and welcoming.The Chips/Mayai delicacy
the one I had lastly tested in Central Africa was the main order of the day and
people seemed to enjoy it. However, their Kuku choma was different, resembling
the one I had tested in West Africa and thus, remembering how sweet it was the
first time it visited my mouth, I stood close to the waiter and made sure he
speared a piece for me. Pilau, wali and nyama choma was also available as is
the culture with East African people.
Madafu was also available and those who loved the sweet and natural
juice were seen holding dear to it from the moment we got to the spring to the
moment we got to Arusha town.
It was time to leave the beautiful and calm
Tanzania towards Kenya and thus we took our truck back to Kenya through Namanga
border. We stopped in Arusha and here, the cultural center impressed most of us and we let our eyes monitor the history and the mind store the memories. We got
to Namanga at the wee-hours of the night, and so the border was deserted and no
businesses were operational.
This was now a one-stop border post and thus we didn’t have to clear
fromTanzania, then cross the border to clear in Kenya but in this case, the
services were housed under one roof. However, we had welcoming immigration officers
who were competed in their job, with the operations housed in one building,
clearing was faster this time. Within a few minutes, the group was cleared. It
is important to note that the temporary pass gets three stamps before you can
enter Tanzania, otherwise the immigration officers will be stuck on how to
clear you while exiting Tanzania. Within minutes, we were in Nairobi and we had
experienced the effects of Common Market Protocol provision of free movement of
people.
How free is the free movement of people between Tanzania and Kenya?
Crossing to Tanzania from Kenya, you need a
temporary permit, ID and passport photo and a Yellow fever card card. This is
for those without passports and the vaccination card. This is different if you
are crossing Uganda to Rwanda and so, despite the movement of people across the
borders of EAC member States being free, find out if you only need your ID or
you may be also required to produce the temporary permit before embarking on
your travelling experience. The Moshi-Arusha experience was spectacular,
the officers did their work, no bribes and we did not have to pay a single coin
for visas to cross the border but again, everything has its disadvantage. Most
of those people who worked as custom brokers before the establishment of the
one-stop border posts now are brokers in money exchange market, ‘the black
market’ and if you are not keen at the Oloitoktok-Tarakea border, someone will
turn you into a client and you will end up losing your new admirable expensive Kenyan
shillings with Tanzanian shillings not equivalent to your Ksh or at some point,
you will end up broke but not poor with no money to spend in Tanzania.
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