THE membership of Rwanda and Burundi in the East African Community took effect on Sunday, expanding the regional bloc to five nations and creating a wider market.
“According to the agreement that was signed, Rwanda and Burundi have become members of the EAC starting today (Sunday),” a Ugandan foreign ministry official told the AFP. The two countries joined the community on June 18 after the fifth extra ordinary summit of heads of state.
The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame and his Burundi counterpart, Pierre Nkurunziza, signed the treaties that day.
The summit attended by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania welcomed the new entrants.
Effectively, Rwanda and Burundi are now beneficiaries of the EAC’s customs union, which entered into force in January 2005 and set common tariffs for goods entering the region, Kenyan and Ugandan officials said.
The member-states of the bloc plan to hold referendums on adopting a common currency and formally creating a federation with a president, cabinet, parliament and Supreme Court by September 2009.
Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a decade later amid deteriorating ties and diverging economic philosophies.
The relative economic strength of Kenya also eroded the viability of the bloc.
It resurrected in 2000 as leaders of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania agreed to create a European Union-style common market for their 90 million citizens to strengthen their economic and political clout.
With the two new members, the region now has a land area of 1.9 million square kilometres, a population of around 115 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product of more than 41 billion dollars.
The EAC budget increased to $28.3m for the 2007/2008 fiscal year, up from $18m, Kibaki said.
