Over the weekend, President Paul Kagame lambasted government officials who spend more time traveling than carrying out tasks for which they were appointed to serve in the Rwandan people’s interests.

By specifically pointing to the EAC related travels, the Rwandan President echoed the Tanzanian leader John Pombe Magufuli’s closing remarks at a recent EAC summit.

Magufuli was asked to step in as chairman in the absence of Burundian resident whose turn it was to chair the EAC.

In true Magufuli style, he began by elaborating on the enormity of the expenses associated with the frequent conferences, consultative meetings and validation workshops.

It is encouraging that the leaders of the EAC are cognizant of the relative high cost of the EAC bureaucracy to their impoverished citizenry. While managing the costs related to EAC integration process is prudent, the whole fiasco around the EAC related costs raises more questions than answers.

I will focus my attention on two specific questions;

1. Whose interests does the EAC serve?

2. Who should drive the integration process?

In addressing these questions, one needs to acknowledge that there are three primary stakeholders in the EAC integration process, namely; the Heads of State, the bureaucrats handling the EAC integration process and, finally, the EAC citizens.

Currently, the agenda at the EAC seems to be driven by the bureaucrats both at the EAC headquarters in Arusha and from the concerned institutions within the member countries.

It is important to note that these bureaucrats are a heady mix of political nominations and careerists. By nature of the bureaucracy in place, the work at the EAC attracts a small corps of the elite class from the EAC region and a multitude of consultants. Regardless of their professionalism and all their best interests, these bureaucrats and consultants are not representative of the average EAC citizen. 

The strategic direction towards attainment of the EAC’s goal and objectives is rightly mandated to the Summit that brings together the Heads of State of the member countries once a year.

These are elected officials and should represent the aspirations of their people. The decision making and governance functions of the EAC are, in turn, mandated to the council of ministers which meets twice a year.

This structure inadvertently passes a lot of the power to the Arusha based EAC secretariat which is the executive organ of the community.

In hindsight, president Kagame’s novel idea presented in his opening remarks of the 13thUmwiherero provides some food for thought;  by sending the EAC minister permanently to Arusha in an attempt to reduce travel costs, Rwanda may achieve more than just that.

It allows the minister to be more involved in the decision making and governance at the EAC secretariat. Ideally, all member countries would follow suit to fully empower the council of ministers in performing its duties.

The four integration pillars of the EAC are also equally important in understanding what the future holds for an integrated EAC region. The pillars are; the customs union, common market, monetary union and political federation.

To date, the EAC has implemented the pillars of a customs union and common market with reasonable success.

Some challenges persist, such as determining tax related incentives in the individual member country’s investment promotion.

The different EAC members find themselves hamstrung by the EAC tax code while attempting to promote specific sectors that may be vulnerable to cheap imports not only from within the region but also further afield, such as India and Brazil.

In Rwanda’s case, consumables such as edible oils, sugar and rice are common examples.

In November 2013, the EAC adopted the East African Monetary Union protocol and embarked on a process of implementing a single currency within a 10 year period. About the same time the Euro zone fiscal debt crisis was coming full circle.

Perhaps, the gods were looking out for the EAC and sending a warning. I can’t imagine how events would unfold if ever we found ourselves with individual countries reneging on their financial obligations and requiring EAC member states to bail them out!

From observing the EU’s recent meltdown, my view is that a monetary union without a fiscal union (government spending and taxation policy) is ill-advised and is more trouble than it’s worth.

We could do much better by facilitating the common market further beyond signed protocols and enabling the free movement of persons, labour, goods and services across our borders.

The roadmap to achieving a political federation is even less clear and potentially more perilous.  

A quote from the EAC official website captures the ambiguity of the task at hand; "It is worth noting that attainment of the Political Federation is a process and not an event. Though the process has been slow, the EAC Heads of State resolved at a Special Summit held in Nairobi on 27-29 August 2004 to examine ways and means of deepening and accelerating the process through a fast-track mechanism.”

The key question here should be; do the citizens of the EAC aspire to belonging to a single political entity? The jury is out on that one but my educated guess is a philosophical one; that time is a long way in the future.

The current political climate in the individual countries could not be more disparate; on the one extreme, South Sudan is just smarting from a civil insurrection, Burundi is imploding and Uganda has just held a fractious presidential election.

On the other, Tanzania continues to enjoy its post independence unfettered peace, Rwanda is forging a strong post-Genocide national identity, while Kenya is solidifying a unity government that has brought former opponents to work together having seen firsthand the effects of divisive politics in 2008. What is clear is that the people are undecided or, at the very least, wait to be consulted on these very important matters.

The actual sentiments of the EAC citizenry can again be found in this quote from the EAC, "…In the consultations, it became clear that the East African citizens want to be adequately engaged and to have a say in the decisions and policies pursued by the East African Community.”

The writer is a consultant and trainer specializing in Finance and Strategy. He is based in Kigali.