EAC TO USE CYCLING FOR BRANDING

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

The East African Community (EAC) says it would use an annual cycling event to brand the regional body.

They said the just-ended cycling race across the region was also an excellent opportunity to market regional integration efforts. 

"It would also not only preach peace and unity but also promote the economic potentials of the region", said Martin Ngoga, the Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala).

He said here on Friday when receiving 26 riders who cycled across the region  that the race would sensitize people on mitigating climate change.

"The cycling safari is indeed one of those successful initiatives of public-private partnerships (PPPs) that EAC will utilize to champion the integration", he said.

This year's race, now dubbed the Great African Cycling Safari, involved 26 cyclists from the six partner states. 

They cycled a total of 6,000 kilometres across Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, skipping South Sudan due to the security challenges.

The race started on September 1st in Dar es Salaam and lasted for a total of 55 days, ending on September 24th in Arusha.

Mr. Ngoga, who graced the event on behalf of the EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki,said the organization of the tour was in tandem with the wishes of the EAC leaders.

"Indeed one of our priorities over the next five years is to promote awareness and dissemination of information on our Community", he added.

The East African Business Council (EABC), an umbrella body of private sector organizations in the region based here, provided corporate sponsorship.

The leader of the race John Bosco Balongo from Uganda said he came up with the idea way back in 2015 after he took part in a 90 day cycling race from Uganda to Sweden. 

The latter event was organized to mark 100 years of scouting in Uganda and took him and a handful of others three months to accomplish across three continents.

It was in 2016 that he came up with the idea of a cycling race in East Africa in order to send a message to people on the need for unity.

Francis Munyoki, the chair of the Great Africa Cycling Safari said the event would from now be held along the lines of 'Tour de France', arguably the greatest cycling event in the world. 

The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Damas Ndumbaro challenged the EAC technocrats to ensure they use the event to brand the organization.

Kenya's cabinet secretary for Tourism and Wildlife Najib Balala said EAC has a lot of challenges which should be tackled through sensitization of people on its benefits.

Arusha district commissioner Ms Sophia Mjema said Tanzania government and the authorities in Arusha would render all the support to the initiative.