Arusha. The East African Community (EAC reiterated yesterday that it was not against bilateral or trilateral agreements by its partner states.
Secretary general Richard Sezibera maintained that such initiatives not involving EAC directly were not likely to weaken the regional organisation or its programmes.
He told reporters after formally launching the Online EAC Brand Survey that Tanzania was not being sidelined in the community following recent meetings of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda leaders.
Tanzania was not invited to the meeting involving presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni in Mombasa early this week.
Burundi, the other EAC partner state, and South Sudan, were represented in Mombasa where the three presidents signed ambitious plans to fast-track the East African political federation.
The leaders jointly launched a new berth at Mombasa Port as well as the construction of a new standard-gauge railway line from the Kenyan port city to Kampala.
The railway line will later be extended to Kigali, Rwanda. The three presidents also directed their responsible ministers to report back on the progress on the proposed Eldoret-Kampala-Kigali oil pipeline.
But Dr Sezibera maintained that such initiatives, rather than weakening EAC, they were “advancing our mandate of integrating the region, especially if the projects are within the EAC development framework”.
He made the same remarks in Arusha on Monday after addressing journalists on what the regional body was doing to defuse tension between Tanzania and Rwanda following the recent spats.
Yesterday, he emphasised that he had made the EAC position clear on initiatives taken by its member states bilaterally or trilaterally and that such moves were not posing a threat to it.
On Monday he said: “The three countries (Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda) were trying to implement or fast-track what is within EAC framework. It’s a good initiative but to me this is not the first time such a thing is happening.”
According to him, initiatives taken by individual states without going through the Secretariat include the tripartite arrangement between Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda on the central corridor railway line.
Kenya and Uganda have jointly operated a railway line from Mombasa to Uganda for years; Tanzania and Uganda have a memorandum of understanding on power transmission.
Non-involvement of Tanzania and Burundi in such consultations have raised eyebrows in the region. The two governments have not given their official positions on their feelings for being sidelined from the key talks.
When he launched the Online EAC Brand Survey in the presence of senior officials from two other organs of the community, the East African Legislative Assembly and the East African Court of Justice, Dr Sezibera said: “The EAC is carrying out a brand survey to gain a better insight into how it is perceived by stakeholders and the community in general.“
The Citizen
