BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA
President William Ruto of Kenya has joined the fray for a comprehensive review of the East African Community (EAC) Treaty.
The Kenyan leader's request is in support of an earlier call by President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania that the Treaty did not reflect the current times.
Mr. Ruto, speaking in Nairobi on Friday last week, said the current Treaty came into effect when the bloc had only three members; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
The proposed new Treaty, he said, should be aligned to the current structure of the EAC which is made up of seven Partner States.
"The Treaty should indeed be amended to accommodate all the partner states considering that they all have different cultures", he added.
Mr. Ruto made the call during his meeting with the Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) Joseph Ntakirutimana at his State House.
Mr. Ntakirutimana echoed, citing the use of French and Kiswahili as additional official languages of the EAC as having spurred the need for the Treaty review.
The Speaker, a lawmaker from Burundi, decried the use of English only as the official language of the Community which currently has seven member states.
He describes this as an impediment to seamless communication in the Assembly, now that it has members from DR Congo" which is a French speaking country".
The EAC Treaty,a 116 page document unveiled on November 30th, 1999, specifies English as the official language and Kiswahili as a lingua franca;a community-wide language.
The Treaty is also categorical that Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya as the partner states, noting however that any other country can be granted membership.
Membership grew from three founder members to five in 2007 when Burundi and Rwanda joined, followed by South Sudan and DR Congo in 2016 and 2022 respectively.
Failure to amend the Treaty despite repeated calls made countless times has significantly impacted on the operations of Eala and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ).
The two organs of the Community have been struggling for financial and administrative autonomy from the Secretariat to enable them run their affairs effectively.
There had been repeated calls to amend the EAC Treaty from the political leaders, legislators as well as the business captains in the region.
During her meeting with senior executives of the Community led by the secretary general Peter Mathuki in Dar es Salaam in July 2021, President Hassan stressed the same.
The Tanzanian Head of State emphasized the need for a comprehensive review of the Treaty and other legal instruments to reflect the current times.
“The Treaty establishing the EAC was put on paper 20 years ago when we were only three members", she said, noting that by then (2021) the membership had grown to six.
"Hopefully we shall continue growing. We therefore need to not only review the Treaty, but other instruments as well, to align them with the current times", she pointed out.
Currently the EAC has seven member countries after the admission of DR Congo in April last year amid efforts to pull Somalia into the bloc.
Voices have also been raised by Eala members as well as the consultants on the fast expansion of the bloc on whether it would yield the anticipated results.
At a recent session of the regional Assembly in Arusha, there were calls for more elaborate plans before admission of new members is made.
It was argued that the EAC in operation today was modeled on the topology of three original states; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
"There was no critical planning for expansion", said Kenneth Bagamuhunda, a Kampala-based consultant and the former EAC director general of Customs and Trade.
He told a special sitting of the Assembly that there should be no rush for admitting new members so that countries which have met the laid down benchmarks join the bloc.
Mr. Bagamuhunda, who retired last year after serving the EAC in a senior position for 18 years, argued that there should be a clear mechanism for expansion.
The Arusha-based EAC currently has seven member countries; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and DR Congo.
Another country expected to join the bloc soon is Somalia. A verification mission has been sent there to assess the country's readiness.
But Mr. Bagamuhunda said much as the EAC Treaty has room for admission of new countries, the process should be orderly.
There should be "no rush" so as to allow for a grace period to enable the prospective member "to understand the nitty gritty of the EAC".
He said it took Burundi and Rwanda nearly 10 years to join the bloc after participating in the EAC programmes as observers.
The two countries joined the EAC in July 2007 with Rwanda having applied for membership in 1996 and Burundi in 1999.
"We did not have a clearly set roadmap for admission of new members but it was easier for Burundi and Rwanda", he said.
The two countries (Burundi and Rwanda) were regular participants in the EAC programmes as observers. "It was a learning process for them".
Much as he welcomed admission of new members, the former top EAC executive stressed the need for detailed negotiations before a new member is admitted.
The level of negotiations from the verification stage should be detailed and deepened "so as to have countries that would easily comply with the EAC set of things ", he added.
During last Friday's meeting with Eala Speaker in Nairobi President Ruto said although he appreciated what the EAC has done for years, time has come for the Treaty to be reviewed.
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