EAC Common Market not for the ignorant

A few days before and after the EAC Common Market protocol came into effect on July 1, 2010 a couple of people asked me rather interesting questions. A former student of mine now living in Kampala asked me whether it would still be possible for her to return to Rwanda after July 1. “Is it true that my temporary travel document will no longer be accepted at the Kagitumba border crossing,” she asked me over the phone. A Ugandan teacher working in Kigali asked me whether it was true that people had started crossing the border without being required to present a passport. She even told me how she was planning to abandon plans to acquire a Ugandan passport for future travels. “What will be its use now that people are crossing with their IDs,” she innocently added. Several other people have been asking me whether taxes will be abolished and why Uganda had introduced new bank notes yet very soon we shall be having one currency for the whole East African region. What the above innocent inquiries imply is that there are indeed large pockets of ignorance surrounding the Utopian world promised by the EA Common Market. It is indeed a fact that from July 1, East Africa’s Common Market came into force aimed at allowing free movement of goods, services as well as people across the region. While a good number of media houses (including The New Times) pointed out the benefits embedded in this arrangement, few of them bothered to clarify that much of all that is said is still on paper and may not even be realised until 2015. In other words there is a lot that needs to be done before we can even start feeling more East African than was already the case. What most people have not realised is that the different EAC countries have hardly taken time to align their legal regimes to make the Common Market operational. Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported on May 26, 2010 that EAC member states were rushing to pass laws that conform to the Common Market Protocol. According to some countries’ laws, EAC is made up of three states – Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya with their laws not recognising Rwanda and Burundi who joined in 2007. “While we have been moving on with integration, the laws have been static and need redefinition to conform to the protocol,” the Kenyan permanent secretary in the EAC Ministry, David Nalo was quoted as saying. The provision of crossing borders with Identity Cards is one of the most impossible right now. This is because, it is only Rwanda that has computerised IDs in the region and other countries have not amended their laws to allow Rwandans to enter with these cards yet. Rwanda took the first step of abolishing work permits for EAC citizens and Kenya followed suit on Friday July 2, after President Mwai Kibaki had ordered so. EAC Visitors to Kenya can now stay for as long as six months. However other member states are yet to work on a similar provision. The bitter truth is that most of the national laws relating to the EAC protocol were not harmonised before the July 1 deadline. And to make matters worse, a good number of East Africans are simply not aware of this fact. Therefore any East African wishing to partake in the goodies promised by the EAC Common Market may have to take the trouble to find out what the laws. If you are thinking of finding a job in Uganda or Tanzania then you need to make an effort to find out what the laws in any of those countries concerning the EAC protocol say. Although, Uganda’s New Vision newspaper (May 30, 2010) was quick to talk about the 500,000 jobs that will arise from the Common Market, one needs to find out whether the laws in Uganda have been changed to permit others to move and work in the country. Laws concerning land ownership are yet to be touched. Therefore if you were planning on buying acres of land in Moshi, Tanzania, then you may have to wait a little longer. It is my sincere hope that government ministries concerned with the implementation of the EAC Common Market protocol make it their business to pass on any relevant information about developments in this line to their citizens. The trade ministries should endeavour to inform traders of changes concerning the tax regimes while the immigration authorities should regularly inform people of any changes. There is simply no way East Africans will benefit from the Common Market or the community in general if vital information is not flowing from the policy makers down to the common man. I look forward to a more functional Common Market as time goes by. ssenyonga@gmail.com