The Horn Of Africa States: There Goes The Economic Engine Of The EAC – OpEd

How does a group of countries whose leaderships are mostly tainted by some kind of misgovernance could ever lead to a successful intergovernmental organization that can enhances the political, social and cultural integration of a region like the EAC or improve the quality of life of its people?

Corruption, overstaying in power, coming to power through suspect and mostly ethnic-based movements/parties constitute the prime processes that brought most of the leaders of the region into power. This makes them defensive, vulnerable and weak as they are more concerned with preserving their power instead of working for the people.

The EAC has, miraculously expanded, despite its dysfunctionality, with leaders like Kagame of Rwanda, Museveni of Uganda, and Silva Kiir of South Sudan overstaying in power for longer than they should have been or were originally brought to power for, through sheer manipulation and conflict arousal and other dubious means, or through self-promotional processes.

The other leaders of the community, although coming through elections have also mostly used ethnic-based parties to come to power, which does not pose well for any of their countries. Can one have two hearts – loyalty to the country or loyalty to an ethnic group? No wonder, most leaders of the region remain corrupt, reckless, travel at the expense of the people and lead luxury lives, while the population of the region suffer.

The EAC despite all the fanfare and its expansion, remains a fundamentally weak organization, more or less designed as a club organization of luxuriously rich presidents living off the backs of over three hundred million African people. Many of them do not even pay, on time, the fees for joining the club, which keeps the budgetary processes and hence performance of the organization weak and marred by continuous financial shortages.

The EAC, therefore, remains just another name in the pile of organizations created by Africans, which do not change one iota of the life processes in the continent. Their disputes alone stand in the way of any development in deepening and improving the lives of the population of the region. There is the continuous territorial dispute and disagreements between Rwanda and Uganda, which remain unsettled. There is also the territorial dispute between Kenya and Uganda or the DR Congo almost eternal conflicts reportedly pushed by members of the EAC such as Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. There is also the continuous disputes between Rwanda and Burundi, all based on ethnic conflicts. Even newly joined Somalia has territorial disputes with Kenya which involve not only land but also oceanic claims. This makes the EAC a fundamentally unworkable organization.

It explains why some countries push a new proposition to have the powers of the EAC concentrated in a few countries so that they can take major decisions of the organization without involving other members. Some countries have proposed introducing a “VETO” power to be given to the highest paying members., as was recently highlighted in a report of a committee chaired by Kipipiri Member of Parliament, Wanjiku Muhia of Kenya. Those who do not meet their obligations to the EAC will then have no powers. Poor countries like recovering Somalia and conflict prone South Sudan and may be others who do not like the organization despite joining it, like the DR Congo, may have no say in matters of the EAC should such a proposition go through in the EAC. These countries and others do delay paying their contributions to the finances of the Community, although others owe it substantially as well. Note the proposition involves the highest payers and not those who do not owe the organization a penny.

The so-called Gen Z but originally ethnically motivated protests in Kenya (the Kikuyu of Mt. Kenya) have amply demonstrated the huge gap and mistrust between young people and the ruling parties. The young people of the region as demonstrated by the Gen Z and millennials of the other countries of the region are not different from those of Kenya and all could embark on unexpected protests across the region to perhaps correct the corrupt old generations of the region who have impoverished it. The protests represent genuine grievances that have been kept under the blanket of politicians using the tribes and ethnic-based parties over a long period of time, and which is no longer sustainable.

It is not too late for Somalia to withdraw from a club it does not truly belong to. It made a mistake joining the Arab League to which it does not belong in the past. Joining and insisting on staying in the EAC is just another fundamental mistake. The region is steeped in corruption and hence there would always be insecurities created by the established ethnic-based political elites of that region. Somalia has suffered enough from clan-based atrocities and should not go that way again. The EAC does not truly represent an organization that Somalis and Somalia belong to. It will in due course encroach into the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, and with the “Veto Powers” under proposition, Somalia may find itself living with rules decided elsewhere that would fundamentally change the Somali culture and belief systems.

Kenya, the largest economy in the region, has been jolted and it is not clear how this would end. What is obvious is that if Kenya, the economic engine of the region, has gone this way, what would one expect of the others, most notably Uganda, which has a similar character and history as Kenya, and for that matter, Tanzania? What about the overstaying powers of Rwanda and South Sudan? They must all have their fingers on their hearts!