The East African Community (EAC); overview

EAC proposed standard gauge

East African Community (EAC) is one of the 8 regional economic blocs of African Union (AU) which were formed to advance African Integration at sub-regional level. These Regional Economic Communities (RECs) include ECOWAS, ECCAS, IGAD, SADC, EAC, MAGRED, CEN-SAD, and AMU https://www.uneca.org/oria/pages/regional-economic-communities. EAC is the regional community composed of African States located in eastern Africa and partly Horn of Africa. EAC was formed in 1967 but cooperation in East Africa started in 1917 when the British colonial power in the region formed Custom Unions between Kenya and Uganda with Tanganyika joining in 1927. Different arrangements followed until the current EAC formed in 1999.

The EAC founded in 1967 collapsed after celebrating its 10^th anniversary in 1977 following challenges such as demands of more seats in the decision making table by Kenya which had the biggest economy, disagreement with Idi Amin of Uganda who demanded that Tanzania withdraw its forces  and not harbor forces fighting to topple his government, and the Kampala agreement which sought to establish an even distribution of industries across the region as a means to ensuring balanced development. Each member state preferred to protect its market and remain the giant. Upon the collapse of the community, a Monetary Union with currency board and a parity currency was operational meaning each country had its own currency but converted at par: one Kenyan shilling=one Tanzanian shilling = one Ugandan shilling. It’s therefore clear that EAC even at its beginning was doing well and its collapse negatively impacted integration in the region.

23 years later, the three founding countries of 1967 EAC decided to revive the community with the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community which was signed in November 1999 in Arusha and entered into force in July 2000. With historical links, it was not hard to keep the new community moving and catch up with the other African regional economic blocs. With 2016 regional integration report,https://www.integrate-africa.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/ARII-Report2016_EN_web.pdf, EAC ranked the best in trade integration and productive integration dimensions of regional integration, ECOWAS the best in free movement of people and financial and macroeconomic integration dimensions, and IGAD the best in Regional Infrastructure.

EAC therefore with the history of integration between its members, started with signing the protocol establishing Custom Union in 2004 which became operational in 2005 as specs of free trade were already happening within the region. Later in 2010, a Common Market became operational followed with Monetary Union Protocol signed in 2013 expected to be attained in 2024 and ultimately a political federation of the East African States. Though an inter-governmental organization, EAC aims at becoming a supranational organization where the power and influence of member states will transcend that of national borders in matters of decision making.

The current EAC has six member States with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania the founding members. Rwanda and Burundi became full members in July 2007 and the youngest member South Sudan became a full member in 2016. These six member states are neighbors, connected by almost similar foods, language, dressing and tied together in a similar geographical location. The member States face similar challenges especially long sitting presidents and constant disagreements between the heads of states that puts a lot of downward pressure on integration. With East Africa, it’s possible to penetrate the member states with ease as the countries are connected by roads. Its therefore easier for EAC to advance in trade and other dimensions of regional integration as compared to other RECs whose members are spread over a larger geographical area whose agendas are not as similar as their economic blocs forecast. Some of EAC projects include the standard gauge railway, the one-stop border posts, road transport sub-sector projects, Lake Nyasa ports among others. Although it has not yet fully attained its objectives of widening and deepening cooperation among its member States, EAC is on its right course and with more effort on political aspects as it has managed to put on economic aspect, political federation would be possible.