Kisumu Evariste Ndayishimiye

Uhuru Kenyatta and Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye in Kisumu.

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Leaders ‘like’ EAC again after years of pulling apart

The visit by Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye may have added another brick to the reconstruction of the East African Community, which has looked feeble in the past as leaders targeted divergent interests.

Mr Ndayishimiye attended the first Summit of heads of state in February, when the leaders agreed to elect Kenya’s Peter Mathuki as the new secretary-general. Incidentally, the EAC had looked weaker when held by Burundian Liberat Mfumukeko.

In Kisumu, where President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted him for two days, they agreed to strengthen relations through “shared values and principles … and a united East African Community”.

A communique issued from State Lodge in Kisumu showed the two countries had focused mainly on bilateral agreements, signing seven MoUs for political consultation, diplomatic training, agriculture and livestock development, sports cooperation, cooperative development, public service and tourism.

EAC framework

But they said most of them will be implemented within the East African Community framework.

“The leaders exchanged views on various development matters in the East African Community (EAC) and reaffirmed their commitment to continue working together in championing the EAC integration agenda and 6th EAC Development Strategy and initiatives under the auspices of Comesa and the ICGLR,” they said, also referring to the regional common markets trading bloc and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a peace initiative to restore stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring countries.

Mr Albert Shingiro, Burundi’s Foreign and Development Cooperation minister signed all the deal with Kenyan line ministers, which he said would “upscale the scope of cooperation”.

Indifferent

Burundi’s participation in the EAC had been indifferent under Mr Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza. He skipped all summits in the past five years and delayed paying his country’s membership fees. President Ndayishimiye overturned that, took part in meetings and has pledged to pay up.

Back in February, the Burundian leader was elected rapporteur of the EAC, which technically implies that he will coordinate future summit meetings. President Uhuru Kenyatta was appointed chair of the summit.

In Kisumu, they said these roles “exemplified” commitment to regional integration and cited their current membership in the AU Peace and Security Council, as well as contributing troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia.

The declarations follow last month’s meetings between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu, who was on a state visit to Nairobi. During the tour, they agreed to ensure freedom to trade and remove barriers that have hindered business between the two countries.

Enthusiasts of regional trade say rallying support for EAC was always President Kenyatta’s first task as chair of the community.

“As the EAC Summit chair, it is incumbent on President Kenyatta that he creates first-name basis [and] mutually beneficially relationships with all Summit members. Which explains why President Kenyatta is going the extra mile to ensure that he retains the confidence and trust of all Summit members,” said Dismas Mokua, a political risk analyst for cross-border businesses.

Speak same language

Despite being small, Burundi’s political troubles made a chink in the armour of the EAC structure, Mr Mokua argued. Mr Ndayishimiye’s meetings will likely change perception in the public. It seems that now the region’s leaders are starting to speak the same language.

“It is useful to note that both Suluhu and Ndayishimiye have given their commitment to support EAC to the hilt. They have indicated that they will remove all non-tariff barriers to trade to ensure that factors of production move freely within EAC.”

Despite their vows, it may take time to implement them. For example, the two leaders agreed that respective ministers of foreign affairs must meet before October “to put in place robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure implementation of the agreed deliverables”. It could highly depend on their bureaucracies, as well as personal relations between leaders of member states, however.

When President Suluhu visited Nairobi last month, traders had raised more than 60 tariff and non-tariff barriers between the two countries.

After follow-up meetings last week, Kenya Trade Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina and her Tanzanian counterpart, Prof Kitila Mkumbo agreed on 30, and are to discuss the next 34.

Tanzania, a dispatch from the Trade Ministry said on Monday, had agreed to clear soft drinks made in their territories, and agreed to remove inspection fees on processed products with a standardisation mark, including wheat flour. Tanzania had earlier agreed to join the Common Network Area, eliminating roaming fees on received calls.

They also agreed on preferential treatment on cement, Tanzania to install the Single Window System as Kenya did, to enable faster clearance of goods and harmonise standardisation. Veterinary products will be valid for export up to 30 days and they agreed to establish, for the first time, a permanent committee to monitor implementation of decisions made.

“The meeting reviewed progress made in implementing decisions from previous bilateral meetings and underscored the importance of ensuring they comply with the commitments made between the two countries,” the ministers said in a May 29 communique after a four-day meeting in Arusha.