2012 was a little rough on the edges for EAC

Every end of year, thousands of Ugandans gather at the Nelson Mandela National Stadium (Namboole) to pray for among other things peace in the New Year. Those who do not make it to the stadium flock to other churches and open spaces for overnight prayers to usher in the New Year. Of course many others simply go to the clubs to dance away while others still suffering from what some would call rural-urban migration excitement will be on the lookout for fireworks. I have described the mood in Kampala because that is where the New Year often finds me. The only times that the New Year has caught me Tanzania or Rwanda, I was generally indoors the whole time unable to judge what people really do with their time as they wait for the New Year to start. All in all, I am much more interested in the call for peace theme common with those who prefer to wait for the New Year while praying.Indeed the whole East African region will need to pray for peace and in large quantities if such a thing even exists. It is true that even at the beginning of 2012 lots of prayers focused on peace but as we have seen, the year has not been as peaceful as we would have wanted. Generally speaking there was little incident in Burundi and Rwanda expect for the fact that areas close to Rwanda like Goma in DR Congo at some point experienced war. With talks going between the Congolese government and the rebel group M23, may be 2013 will provide the much sought after peace in that whole area. Uganda was also generally peaceful if you are to ignore the occasional riots here and there. The main trouble spot for Uganda was the outbreak of Ebola that was closely followed by the Marburg disease. The political scene was as usual very noisy in Uganda but with little results to show for it. Tanzania had its troubles with the mainland and Zanzibar tensions boiling every now and then. The talk of secession and clashes between some Muslim and Christian communities were often reported in the press. As if that was not enough, the country is also having issues with Malawi over a border region. However most of the column inches for instability were eaten up by Kenya where clashes between tribes or clans seemed to be in direct competition with terrorist attacks. At one point grenade attacks seemed a weekly occurrence. In a year that the world saw a video calling for the arrest of Kony going viral, surely 2013 should be the year Joseph Kony is captured. More so the presence of Ugandan, Kenyan and Burundian soldiers should finally see Somalis enjoying the peace and love they had sought all these year. With a major election beckoning in Kenya, it might be wise for those praying to remember praying for Kenya as it goes on choose its fourth president. I really do pray that the election process goes on without any major skirmishes because the wounds of 2007 are still fresh.As we wind up the year, allow me to point out these few people who have really kept our region in the news for all the good reasons. Many of you may not be reading much about Burundi but let us face it; the Newcastle United player Gael Bigirimana is currently flying the Burundian flag so high. Kenya’s Victor Wanyama playing for Celtic in Scotland also had his day in the bright lights when he scored a goal against the mighty FC Barcelona. However it would be unfair to talk about him without mentioning David Lekuta Rudisha whose humility just blows once you try to understand the gravity of his track and field achievements in the 800 meters races. As the London Olympics were drawing to a close, many Ugandans were already resigned to the fact that the only Olympic gold medal they will ever talk about would be the one John Akii-Bua won 40 years back. Little did they know that a young man named Stephen Kiprotich had other plans that included upsetting the Kenyans at their own game (long distance races). The EAC project can only move forward in a climate of peace and mutual respect and my prayer is that in 2013 we have enough peace to fuel the numerous development projects in our different countries so as to achieve our full potential. Happy New Year 2013.