The President of Kenya, Dr William Ruto has suggested that the seven partner states should contribute money to help facilitate the East African Community (EAC) committee of experts expedite the drafting of the Constitution for the proposed political confederation.
While meeting the Committee of Experts led by former Chief Justice of Uganda Benjamin Odoki at the State House in Nairobi recently, Ruto said that there is need to fast-track the process of drafting the Constitution so that it is done by June next year.
The Committee of experts is currently on national consultations in the EAC partner states as it gathers views about what would be put in the Constitution for the regional bloc’s confederation.
“East Africans wanted to live together and do business regardless of national boundaries and EAC Partner States should therefore endeavour to catch up with them and actualise the Political Confederation as fast as possible,” said President Ruto.
Ruto pledged that the Government of Kenya would give $1 million to the EAC Secretariat to support national consultations on Political Confederation being conducted by committee.
He also pledged to convince the other Partner States to also contribute so that the process of drafting the constitution is finished in time as directed by the Summit.
He added that order to continue with their lives and living as one family, the citizens were well ahead of their national governments in as far as the integration process was concerned.
Reechoing his recent message on the need to remove trade buriers, Ruto said that Partner States should not entertain the barriers occasioned by the boundaries created by the former colonial powers for their own imperial interests, instead urging Partner States to work together and collapse all the boundaries for the sake of integration in the region and beyond.
Beyond the EAC market, the continent is making the move to create a wider market so that Africa’s raw materials that have always been shipped to Europe, Asia and America gain the value that they deserve.
Currently, the continent is implementing the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) which removes barriers on the movement of goods and services across the continent.
President Ruto said that a borderless Africa would benefit from the prosperity that comes with integration, noting that integration would provide for a bigger market for the goods and services produced by the people of the region.
Justice Benjamin Odoki the Chairperson of the Committee informed the Kenyan leader that the committee concluded stakeholders’ consultations in Republic of Burundi and the Republic of Uganda.
Justice Odoki added that in Kenya, the committee had covered the entire countryside and was now left with Nairobi region to conclude consultations in the country.
Justice Odoki informed the president that there had been very good ideas and recommendations that emerged from Kenyans during the consultations.
“I can confidently tell you that, we are trailing behind the citizens wishes in terms of the need for a political integration Mr. President,” said Justice Odoki.
The Chairperson disclosed that the people they had interacted with in Kenya wanted the EAC Political Confederation in place in the shortest possible time.
Background
The Political Federation is the ultimate pillar in the EAC integration process, being preceded by the Customs Union, Common Market and Monetary Union in that order.
The Summit of EAC Heads of State in May 2017 adopted a Political Confederation as the transitional model to the Political Federation. The Team of Experts was appointed by the Summit in February 2018 and is chaired by Justice Benjamin Odoki, retired Chief Justice of Uganda.
Justice Odoki is deputised by former Busia (Kenya) Senator and former AG Amos Wako, who is also a former Kenyan Attorney General.
The objectives of the National Consultations for the EAC Political Confederation are; increasing awareness on the ongoing Constitution-making process for transforming the EAC into a Political Confederation; obtaining stakeholders’ views on their interests and key issues to inform the drafting of model Confederation and subsequently a Confederal Constitution in line with the principle of people-centred regional community, and preparing the public in general to give their inputs into the draft Constitution once it has been drafted.
Other EAC programmes being prepared for alongside the Political Confederation agenda include the regional single customs union and the single currency.
It is believed that with the arrival of the Democratic Republic of Congo last year has widened the regional market base and the removal of trade barriers would make it much easier for the movement of goods and services.
As a way of easing the movement of persons and goods, some of the partner states have established one-stop centres at the border points where the customs and immigration officers of the different countries sit close to each other for fast handling of documentations.
