Editor,This is with reference to Sam Kebongo’s article, “Regional integration should start with the ordinary citizen” (The New Times, November 22).In my view, ordinary East Africans are mostly integrated and comfortable about it. We are, for instance, each other’s most important trading partners (formal and informal), visitors, the source of migrants, students; many of our families have cross-border links, etc. It is the politics that is trying to catch up, not the other way round.Most importantly, if any members of the same family feel uncomfortable with being rushed into a shared all-family project they should be able to stay aside and let those interested move on without feeling left out (after all it is by their own choice that they have remained on the sidelines).Neither those who wish to move on faster and more comprehensively, nor those unwilling to follow at the same pace, should have issues with each other’s choices.Members of the same family don’t always see issues and what they might hold for themselves always from the same perspective. There is nothing unhealthy about that.Mwene Kalinda, Kigali
