EDITORIAL: EAC has come a long way, tread carefully
The road to the immigration desk at the Namanga border point was rendered impassable by protesters who lit bonfires to protest harassment from Tanzanian authorities. PHOTO | JOSEPH NGUNJIRI
Originally founded in 1967, it crashed 10 years later thanks largely to jingoistic politicians, who failed to see the great economic potential in it, but were rather obsessed with pursuit of short-term political goals.
Very unfortunately, despite the billions of shillings that trade within the community generates for its citizens, governments are behaving as if that is not important.
The challenge is that trade numbers rarely feature in the political debates or even popular discourse. EAC, with a GDP of $159.5 billion (Sh15 trillion) and 149 million people in 2014, has been feeding small traders, farmers, industrialists and the hospitality sector for years.
The East African Community (EAC), a natural and critical trading block for East African nations, has painstakingly been built from the scratch since its collapse in the 1970s.
Originally founded in 1967, it crashed 10 years later thanks largely to jingoistic politicians, who failed to see the great economic potential in it, but were rather obsessed with pursuit of short-term political goals.
Very unfortunately, despite the billions of shillings that trade within the community generates for its citizens, governments are behaving as if that is not important.
The challenge is that trade numbers rarely feature in the political debates or even popular discourse. EAC, with a GDP of $159.5 billion (Sh15 trillion) and 149 million people in 2014, has been feeding small traders, farmers, industrialists and the hospitality sector for years.
Trade among member states, dominated by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania stood at $5.63 billion (Sh500 billion) in 2014 after falling from $5.8 billion in 2013.
Indeed, for all the six countries, the three are the most important trading partners.
But that is not what has been headlining news of late.
Instead, things seemed to unravel at the Kenya-Tanzania where locals protested the arrest of informal traders ferrying goods from Dar es Salaam. Incidentally, this came days after Kenyan tour van drivers blocked their Tanzanian colleagues from accessing the Kenyan — on grounds that Tanzanian authorities had treated them in a similar manner.
It is, however, a fact that since the coming to power, President John Magufuli has pursued policies that do not promote robust commercial exchange across national borders – especially with Kenya.
Tanzania has established some of the most nationalistic work permit rules and the entire government machinery appears to have taken cue in their expression of hostility to foreigners.
While the neighbouring governments have been cautious about taking an openly hostile stance against Tanzanians, the citizenry seems to have taken exception and want reciprocal treatment – causing flare ups in places such as the Namanga border.
What needs to happen is de-escalation. East Africa remains such a poor corner of the world that demands of leaders and citizens to look at the bigger picture of common prosperity than fighting petty wars.
In so doing, the officers on the ground and wananchi need to be carried along. If we do not delicately carry the EAC forward as we should, we will degenerate further into poverty.
The best any of the countries will then achieve is being the least poor.
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