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East Africans in eager wait on Fed plans
2007-08-20 09:00:26
By Abdallah Ihucha
The attention of the 110 million-plus people in East Africa is today drawn to this city, where the region`s leaders are engaged in crucial talks on the future of the recently expanded East African Community.
A provisional programme on the talks issued here yesterday by the EAC Secretariat shows that between 9:00 and 10:00 am today, the presidents of the Community`s five partner states will be locked in indoor consultations.
The consultations will be chaired by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, the others present being Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and host Jakaya Kikwete.
The chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Uganda`s Eriya Kategaya, said consideration of the report on the national consultations on fast-tracking the process towards the establishment of an East African political federation would be high on the agenda.
A Steadman survey carried out some months ago showed great diversity in the stand of people in three major capitals the three EAC founding states, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, on the whole idea of a regional bloc along the lines of the Community.
Those against the EAC idea, according to the survey, were: Nairobi (10 per cent), Kampala (16 per cent), and Dar es Salaam (46 per cent).
A study in Tanzania by a presidential national committee chaired by Prof Samuel Wangwe committee confirmed the Tanzanians` uneasiness about a fast-tracked political federation – with an overwhelming 76 per cent of 65,000 respondents opposed to the plan.
It was not clear before today`s talks whether President Kikwete`s stand on plans to fast-track the political marriage would be any different from that of the respondents.
Unfortunately, apart from the Steadman survey, neither the Ugandan nor the Kenyan national committee has made their findings public.
This has made it difficult to predict how the idea of fast-tracking the envisaged political federation will be treated at the Arusha Summit.
For Tanzania, however, Prof Wangwe is on record as having said it would ultimately be upon the electorate in the EAC states to decide whether the regional bloc should adopt a political federation.
Many political analysts interviewed for this story said today`s summit would tell whether the EAC is owned by ordinary citizens or their respective political leaders.
It is generally agreed that the Community as currently operating is a people-driven institutions and an entity revolving around the whims of leaders.
The EAC customs union, which began setting common external tariffs for goods entering the region in January 2005, is seen as a first step towards a common market and single currency modelled on the European Union.
The Community has been working hard to have the common market set up, a move that would enable the residents of the member states to move freely within the 1.9 million-square-km zone.
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