The East African Community (EAC) Heads of States held the 21st Ordinary meeting on February 27th, 2021 after the summit was postponed twice with the original meeting scheduled on 30th November 2021. The meeting was attended by five Head of States with the sixth States, the Republic of Tanzania sending her excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan to represent president Dr. John Pombe Magufuli.
The summit received the progress report of the Council of
Ministers (CM) between February 2019 and February 2021 and considered a report on
implementation of previous decisions and directives of the summit. A report was
also tabled on constitutional development of the East African political
confederation-the highest intended regional body- and directed the council to
expedite the constitutional development process.
Such other issues of the summit were the status of the study on the modalities of including French as a language of the community and a report on the roadmap for acceleration of integration of the Republic of South Sudan into the EAC directing the council to conclude the progress. The verification exercise for admission of the Federal Republic of Somalia into the EAC had not been undertaken thus directing the council to follow up on the exercise.
On the famous admission of the Republic of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo into the, EAC the summit directed the council to expendiously undertake
a verification mission in accordance with the EAC procedure for admission of
the new members to be reported on 22nd. DRC has NOT yet been admitted into the community.
On the status of the EU-EA EPA, the Head of the States recognized that not all
partner States are in a position to sign, ratify, and implement the agreement and also
recognized the
importance of some of the partner States to move forward. The summit concluded
that the Partner States who wish to do so should be able to commerce engagements
with the EU with a
view of
starting the implementation of the EPA under the principle of viable geometry.
Among the pending appointments, the summit appointed Dr. Peter Mathuki of
the Republic of Kenya
as the
new Secretary General of the community for the next five years term which is
non-renewable. Others appointed were Justice Nestor Kayobera (designated as the
president of the East African Court of Justice), Lady Justice Anita Mugeni and
Justice Kathuima M’inoti as judges to the appellate division, Justice Yohane
Bakobora Masara, Justice Richard Wabwire
Wejuji, and Justice Richard Muhumuza as judges to the first instance division.
Furthermore,
Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire was designated as vice president, and justice Audace
Ngiye as the deputy principal judge of the court.
The summit resolved that the Republic of Kenya take the
office as the new chairperson of the community and Republic of Burundi takes over as the rapporteur
and clarified that the latter would become the next chairperson after the
Republic of Kenya.
However, the Heads of
States did not yet discuss if the CM had reported on the move by Kenya to
negotiate the US/Kenya and UK/Kenya FTA or if Kenya had notified the CM.
It is important to do an explicit study
on the implications of the Republic of Somalia and the Democratic Republic of
Congo joining EAC as the two States are struggling to domesticate democracy and
reduce political instability while peace continue to deteriorate. In this case,
EAC could consider the political and economic implication to adding
volatile States to a community which is already facing political and security
volatility observed in the heads of States ideological differences, intra-border
conflicts, rising non-tariff barriers and violence-based elections coupled with
abuse of human rights among each of the six member States.
For more information, read the official comminique here
