For years now, the secretariat of the East African Community (EAC) which coordinates all activities of the now seven-nation regional bloc, has been decrying insufficient funding. This has derailed the implementation of some of the activities beneficial to the citizens of the region.

The main reasons advanced for the financial constraints is lack of timely disbursement of the commitments by partner states, which affects planning and eventually set the bloc back on many activities.

Despite the fact that the bloc has been growing, both in terms of partner states and institutions that are being created to ease the integration process, the over-all budget of the bloc has been on a downward trend.

For instance, members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) heard this week that the budget for this year is down by 30 per cent of what was presented ten years ago (2012-13 fiscal year).

To put things into perspective, the budget was much higher when the bloc had five member states than today where it has seven members and more institutions. Factor in inflation over the years and you will contexualise the appalling situation that the EAC finds itself in.

Certainly, this is a situation we should not want to be in, especially going by the aspirations of the bloc and in finding the solution to the problem, we should not look elsewhere but within.

We should not expect donors to come and fill the void. We can still locally mobilise the resources to ensure the operations are fully funded.

Fortunately, the EAC is still ahead of the curve of their peers on matters integration and this should be the needed impetus to propel us to the next level.

Already, citizens are reaping benefits of the integration process through free movement of people and goods and fewer trade barriers, among others, albeit with some challenges.

However, to fully harness the integration process, the engine that runs is – which is the secretariat – must be sufficiently oiled.