Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli hosted other East African Community leaders in the beautiful Arusha town for the 17th EAC Summit where some major announcements were made. The event in itself was historic in many ways even before we can talk about the pronouncements that came out at the end of it.

It was the first big event that President Magufuli was hosting since his election late last year. The Jakaya Kikwete chapter is over and we are now operating under Magufuli. He did not disappoint in this regard and made headlines when he cautioned the EAC Secretariat not to be a wasteful institution if it is to benefit other East Africans.

Put differently, one can say he offered the Arusha people a dose of ‘Magufulism’ when he showed how the Secretariat can be cost efficient instead of being wasteful especially since a lot of their work is still donor funded.

Don’t you just love this man and his ways? I feel like if he visited me now, he would suggest that I write shorter columns and use the time saved to go and do some farming.

The summit was also attended by recently re-elected Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who at some point during the election campaign hinted that he intended to stick around until East African integration is achieved.

The Burundian leader did not attend the summit probably because the last time he did, he almost lost his job to some overzealous soldiers. However his absence did not deter the appointment of a Burundian, Liberat Mfumukeko as the new Secretary General of the EAC, replacing the industrious Dr Richard Sezibera of Rwanda.

It is hoped that with a new Secretary General from Burundi, the EAC will now be in a better position to do its part in helping to sort out the political crisis that has plagued the nation and slowed its participation in EAC initiatives.

The Burundian peace process was seen by some to be dragging because President Museveni, who was tasked with overseeing it, was busy with his re-election campaign. Maybe things will improve now that former Tanzanian leader Benjamin Mkapa has been brought into the picture.

The biggest announcement from Arusha was the expansion of the community from five to six member states with South Sudan being the new kid on the block. The regional bloc is now over 160 million in terms of population and much bigger in size. This clearly means that lots of trade and cooperation opportunities with Juba have been opened up.

Juba applied to join the EAC family soon after gaining independence but was for long plagued by different institutional weaknesses and later a resumption of the civil war. The guns recently went silent after Uganda’s intervention and peace talks in Addis Ababa. Of course Juba is still fragile in every sense of the word but I guess it needs EAC to help them get their act together faster. After all, they are better with us than with their unreliable and hostile northern neighbours.

With this bigger market and area, the member states may have to move the integration speeds to another gear especially regarding the infrastructure that can connect the region better. South Sudan is landlocked and it urgently needs a pipeline to move its oil through a more reliable area. Uganda and Kenya also need oil infrastructure in place and massive prayers for the oil price to improve if the resource is to ever benefit anyone in the region.

One of the things other Africans probably envy about the EAC is the fairly easy movement of people among the member states. No visas are needed by people in the region and with Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya an ID is enough to get you across the border. Now the much anticipated biometric East African passport was also officially launched at the summit.

The best news about this new passport is that it can be used for international travel outside EAC. For some of us who love to see ourselves as East Africans, there is no better proof of that than walking through airports with an East African passport. My prayer is that the next good news from Arusha will be the declaration of a single EAC airspace. This will go a long way in boosting EAC trade and tourism. As always, I look forward to more action and less talk from the folks in Arusha. 

ssenyonga@gmail.com

www.ssenyonga.wordpress.com