EAC Headquarters, Arusha, 2 September 2008:  H.E. President  Paul Kagame, President  of Rwanda and Chairperson  of the Summit of Heads of State  of the East African Community has said  that  time has come to turn around  the EAC project and render it more effective and rapidly achieving.

President Kagame  said  that during  his term as Chair  of the EAC Summit he would  marshal  the collaborative  effort of the Summit , all  the organs and institutions  of the Community , the broad spectrum  of EAC  stakeholders  and the development partners to steer  the East African Community  to a new era of greater  efficiency  and effectiveness.

EAC delegation

President Kagame, who held  a three hour Strategic  Meeting  with  the Secretary General  of the East African Community Juma Mwapachu and  Senior EAC officials  who called on him at the Office of the President in Kigali  on 27 August  2008 ,  unveiled his vision of the 5-nation  EAC regional bloc  of 120 million population  and  a combined GDP  of $50 billion.

The Secretary General was accompanied during the mission to Rwanda by Senior Officials of the East African Community: Amb. Julius Onen, Deputy Secretary General, Projects and Programmes; Hon Wilbert Kaahwa, Counsel to the Community; Dr Tom Okurut, Executive Secretary Lake Victoria Basin Commission; Dr John Ruhangisa, Registrar, East African Court of Justice, Mr. Justin Bundi, Clerk to the East African Legislative Assembly; Brigadier General Fred Tolit, Defence Liaison Officer;  Mr. Philip Wambugu, Director, Planning and Infrastructure, Dr Nyamajeje Weggoro, Director, Productive and Social sectors; Dr Flora Musonda, Director of Trade, Mr. Magaga Alot, Head, Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs; Mr. Abdul Katabaro, Principal Administrative Officer; Ms Grace Okungu, Principal Human Resource Officer, and Mr. Henry Obbo, Chef de Cabinet.

Welcoming  the EAC delegation, President Kagame  said, “we are grateful    to have worked with you  and other  partners in the region  to make it possible  for Rwanda  and Burundi  to join  the Community  and for giving  us  the honour, so soon thereafter , to  chair the Summit…I understand  clearly  that the opportunity  to chair  the  Summit  does not  represent  any dramatic  development  but  an opportunity to continue  on the good  path  that  has been laid . We’ll do our best to ensure that we can build on what there is to realize more efficiency and effectiveness in the integration process”.

President outlines priorities of dynamic EAC

President Kagame said  the EAC was operating in a dynamic and challenging  environment  , adding that his contribution would be to render the EAC into a  more efficient and effective regional organization that was  focused  on its mission to  realize  the expectations and desires of the East  African people in greater  liberty, unity and prosperity.

The President said among the regional projects that would receive priority attention, and moved to advanced stages of implementation during his tenure, were the ongoing regional infrastructure development master plans in roads, railways, inland waterways, ports and harbours as well as the Lake Victoria investments and development master plan. 

He said  that other priority projects and programmes  would be  the  promotion   of East Africa as a single  tourist destination;  the introduction  of a common  East  African   visa for tourists and business persons as well as intensification  of the programme of elimination of non tariff barriers (NTBs)  under the ongoing  programme of the EAC Customs Union  and the negotiations of the EAC Common  Market. He sad the  immediate measures would be aimed at reducing the costs  of doing  business  in East Africa  and, on the whole,  promote  East Africa  as a competitive  single market and investment area with  a thrust  on tourism, trade and investments promotion.

The President noted that the programme of marketing and promoting East Africa as a single tourist destination , which was launched in 2005,  had proceed well with the EAC Partner States participating  jointly in the leading travel and tourist source markets in Europe  .  The President directed the EAC tourist boards to extend the joint marketing of East Africa to Asia, Far East, Australia and America, stating that EAC had great tourist potential with significant multiplier effects on the economies of the five countries.

The President also noted that the aviation industry had great strategic significance to the EAC regional integration and development. He said the tourism industry would also be among the priorities of his tenure, including revival of the East African Flying School/ East African Aviation School in Soroti, Uganda for training of pilots and aviation engineers. He said the aviation industry in East Africa would be revamped with promotion of investments to the sector to raise aviation standards and safety, open and safe skies and overall air traffic management in the region to the highest competitive levels.

 Strengthening authority of EAC Secretariat

Meanwhile the EAC delegation during a three day (25-27 August 2008) Strategic consultative mission to Rwanda on the EAC integration process in Kigali addressed a series of meetings attended by Cabinet Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Senior Officers of the Rwanda government.

During the launching session, the Counsel to the Community, Hon Wilbert Kaahwa  reviewed  the  judicial and  legal challenges facing  the Community  stating that  the EAC concentrated  its legal  and judicial  affairs on the  promotion and protection  of peoples  rights  within  the Community. He said  the  Treaty  for the Establishment  of the EAC  which  was signed  in 1999  was currently being reviewed  to address  some  of the challenges and shortcomings that  have been  noted during  the past  eight  years as well as the demands of the EAC enlargement and expansion of the regional programme.  Hon  Kaahwa said  the issue  of  sovereignty  at the national level was  at the core of  the  implementation  bottlenecks  the EAC was experiencing . He said that the issue of sovereignty should be revisited so that decisions are more binding and their implementation more expeditious.

Hon Kaahwa said the enforcement processes as well as the sanctions provided under the Treaty were weak.  He  quipped that  the provisions were negotiated “more by diplomats than lawyers” , noting that the provisions of decision-making by consensus posed a great  challenge to  the  Community’s performance adding that , “How do you  enforce  sanctions against  a Partner State  where  you have  decision  by consensus  and the Partner States are  expected  to take  sanctions  against  one of  them by consensus?” .

The Secretary General said that the requirement of decision making by consensus had posed a logjam on the operations of the Community which needed to be addressed by the Partner States ceding adequate authority to the EAC to speed up the decision making process and enable the EAC Secretariat to act with greater confidence and more decisively in implementing regional projects and programmes.

Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
EAC
Arusha