East Africa: Leaders Launch Campaign for East African Federation

October 14, 2006
Posted to the web October 15, 2006
A campaign to rally public support for the proposed East African Federation was yesterday launched in the three countries. President Kibaki set the ball rolling in Nairobi, as Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete did the same in Kampala and Dar es Salaam, respectively.
The campaign to popularise the plan for political and economic union is scheduled to take six months.

The initiative seeks to explain the benefits of the federation to the region's 105 million people, leading to a referendum to be conducted in each of the three countries.

If approved at the referendum, then East Africa will become a federation in 2013. The significance of the federation is that the region will have a common president, flag, anthem and currency.

The presidency will rotate among the three presidents.
The federation president will be a symbolic figure, as each country will retain her president, national flag, national anthem plus its own economy within the union. The federation will have an enlarged Parliament and will allow free movement of people and easy trade among the members.

Members of the East African Legislative Assembly will be elected directly by the people unlike today, when they are appointed by political parties and approved by respective parliaments.
Yesterday, President Kibaki said: We have committed ourselves to shaping a new future; a future in which East Africans will live together, united in peace and prosperity. The process we are launching today aims at revitalising the spirit of East African unity in the minds and hearts of our people.

We want to shift the discussions on the East African Federation away from conference halls to the urban streets and rural villages of East Africa.
President Kibaki said even as the national consultative process was rolling out, Kenyans should remember that a political federation was a complex matter as it involved important issues of sovereignty which the people must decide on. He said during the launch at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi: It is, therefore, important that the subject of political federation is adequately discussed and appreciated by all the people of East Africa.

Thus, we should not forget that the sovereignty of our individual states is derived from the will and self-determination of our people.
The sensitisation campaign, he said, would enable institutions such as the national parliaments, the EA Legislative Assembly, political parties, media, trade unions, the academia, civil society institutions, youth and women to discuss the matters openly and create more public awareness. The Head of State said a common approach would be used to pass the message to all East Africans to be able to make informed opinion on the federation when the time comes to do so.

He said the federation would improve the quality of lives of the people in the region through increased trade and investments, healthy competition and improved production.
The President noted that the spirit of integration was already taking root with the creation of the Customs Union. The Customs Union is expected to translate into a common market, which will allow free movement of people, labour and services.

It will also allow people to live in any of the three countries. Negotiations on a common market, he said, were in progress and were expected to be concluded by December next year. This will be followed by negotiations on the monetary union, which will allow common economic policies and currency.

Some of the benefits of the cooperation already being witnessed, included trade liberalisation, which had resulted in increased trade volumes. Cross-border investments, including cross-listing of stocks were also increasing, he said.
President Kibaki said the challenges of globalisation called for greater cooperation between countries.

Accordingly, the formation of regional, economic and political blocs is not an option but an imperative for social and economic development, he said.
The forum was also addressed by the minister for East African Community, Mr John Koech, and the permanent secretary, Mr Peter ole Nkuraiya.

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