Blogs
Ode to Mama Janet Museveni!
It was most exhilarating to watch and listen to you on X — after an absence from public view of several months. We treasure fond memories of the times we have been privileged to interface directly with you over the years…
enneth David Mafabi. (File)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
___________________
OPINION
By Kenneth David Mafabi
We most warmly salute and greet Mama Janet Kataha Museveni, First Lady of the Ugandan Homeland — our Esteemed Counsellor and Guide, over the decades!
It was most exhilarating last Wednesday evening to watch and listen to you on X — after an absence from public view of several months. We deeply treasure fond memories of the times we have been privileged to interface directly with you over the years - and the immense support to us in the discharge of our duties.
We re-dedicate these November 2013 thoughts to you, Mama — to focus on the central national tasks of accelerating and deepening East African integration, and effecting fundamental socioeconomic transformation of the homeland.
Hongera, Mama Janet!
“Ants on the locust tree assume a great nation swagger.…
So many deeds cry out to be done, And always urgently;
The world rolls on,
Time presses.
Ten thousand years are too long,
Seize the day, seize the hour!”
Poem “Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-jo”, by Mao Zedong, 1963.
In January 1961, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere made clear that he was willing to delay the independence of Tanganyika to coincide with that of Kenya and Uganda — with the three new states merging into a Federation. This revolutionary spirit was to later inspire Mwalimu’s consistent militant support for the African liberation movement.
Today we are supposed, vividly remembering Mwalimu’s inspiring vision, to be celebrating the very concrete results of the third Infrastructure Projects Summit recently held in Kigali, to wit: a single customs territory to eliminate all remaining non-tariff barriers within the northern corridor; decisive movement on a standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Kigali; decisive movement on oil pipelines, refinery development, power generation and transmission.
Time presses.
Ten thousand years are too long,
Seize the day, seize the hour!”
Poem “Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-jo”, by Mao Zedong, 1963.
In January 1961, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere made clear that he was willing to delay the independence of Tanganyika to coincide with that of Kenya and Uganda — with the three new states merging into a Federation. This revolutionary spirit was to later inspire Mwalimu’s consistent militant support for the African liberation movement.
Today we are supposed, vividly remembering Mwalimu’s inspiring vision, to be celebrating the very concrete results of the third Infrastructure Projects Summit recently held in Kigali, to wit: a single customs territory to eliminate all remaining non-tariff barriers within the northern corridor; decisive movement on a standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Kigali; decisive movement on oil pipelines, refinery development, power generation and transmission.
Instead, we are treated to unfortunate lamentations which I am sure make Mwalimu shift uneasily in his final resting place in Butiama. In summary, the lamentations are that Tanzania and Burundi have been isolated, that the tripartite process is illegal and runs counter to the spirit of East African integration. These have been ably answered by my friend Richard Sezibera, secretary general of the East African Community. The other lamentation, preposterous of course, is about “imposition” of a federation by Kampala, Kigali and Nairobi!
But it is still our Pan-Africanist duty to add a few remarks. First, if we looked again at the Treaty Establishing the East African Community, the crescendo of lamentation would immediately tone down. Several principles therein are instructive. We speak here, for example, mainly of the “principle of variable geometry”, as contained in Chapter One, Article 1 of the Treaty dealing with interpretation.
There, the “principle of variable geometry” is defi ned as “the principle of fl exibility which allows for progression in co-operation among a sub-group of members in a larger integration scheme in a variety of areas and at different speeds”.
It may, similarly, be useful to look at the “principle of asymmetry”, defi ned in the Treaty as meaning “the principle which addresses variances in the implementation of measures in an economic integration process for purposes of achieving a common objective”.
In August, 2004, Presidents Daniel Toroitich, Arap Moi, Benjamin William Mkapa and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni met in a special summit in Nairobi. They were bothered by the disturbingly slow pace of integration and “resolved to examine ways of expediting the process so that the ultimate goal of a Political Federation is achieved through a Fast Track Mechanism”. The Presidents set up a Committee to “examine ways and means of fast tracking the EAC Political Federation which carried out wide consultations and presented its Report at the 6th Summit Meeting on November 29, 2004” — headed by then Attorney General of Kenya, Amos Wako.
Then East African Community Secretary General Juma Mwapachu was quoted in Tanzanian media in May 2007 as saying the Wako Committee had “put the cart before the horse”. Explaining his remarks later, he said the terms of reference of the Wako Committee were never to look into the “fast tracking of the political federation”, but the “fast tracking of the process leading to the federation”! Naturally, it is not within our purview to speculate on how such a difference in interpretation of the Terms of Reference of the Wako Committee could have arisen.
Suffice it for now to draw the attention of the reader to the central recommendation of this Committee, which made very extensive consultations. The Wako Committee, “After considering the … options, in line with both … generic issues raised earlier and more specific advantages and disadvantages of each option, … is recommending the overlap and parallel approach. This is the approach based on an Overlap of Parallel Stages of Integration”.
Finally, it is important to remind those worried about a federation that in the Treaty Establishing the East African Community, we all committed ourselves to the federation. In the Treaty, we boldly vowed to build “an East African Community, with an East African Customs Union and a Common Market as transitional stages to and integral parts thereof, subsequently a Monetary Union and ultimately a political federation”.
kdavidmafabi1@gmail.com The writer is Senior Presidential Advisor/Political Affairs (Special Duties) State House
But it is still our Pan-Africanist duty to add a few remarks. First, if we looked again at the Treaty Establishing the East African Community, the crescendo of lamentation would immediately tone down. Several principles therein are instructive. We speak here, for example, mainly of the “principle of variable geometry”, as contained in Chapter One, Article 1 of the Treaty dealing with interpretation.
There, the “principle of variable geometry” is defi ned as “the principle of fl exibility which allows for progression in co-operation among a sub-group of members in a larger integration scheme in a variety of areas and at different speeds”.
It may, similarly, be useful to look at the “principle of asymmetry”, defi ned in the Treaty as meaning “the principle which addresses variances in the implementation of measures in an economic integration process for purposes of achieving a common objective”.
In August, 2004, Presidents Daniel Toroitich, Arap Moi, Benjamin William Mkapa and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni met in a special summit in Nairobi. They were bothered by the disturbingly slow pace of integration and “resolved to examine ways of expediting the process so that the ultimate goal of a Political Federation is achieved through a Fast Track Mechanism”. The Presidents set up a Committee to “examine ways and means of fast tracking the EAC Political Federation which carried out wide consultations and presented its Report at the 6th Summit Meeting on November 29, 2004” — headed by then Attorney General of Kenya, Amos Wako.
Then East African Community Secretary General Juma Mwapachu was quoted in Tanzanian media in May 2007 as saying the Wako Committee had “put the cart before the horse”. Explaining his remarks later, he said the terms of reference of the Wako Committee were never to look into the “fast tracking of the political federation”, but the “fast tracking of the process leading to the federation”! Naturally, it is not within our purview to speculate on how such a difference in interpretation of the Terms of Reference of the Wako Committee could have arisen.
Suffice it for now to draw the attention of the reader to the central recommendation of this Committee, which made very extensive consultations. The Wako Committee, “After considering the … options, in line with both … generic issues raised earlier and more specific advantages and disadvantages of each option, … is recommending the overlap and parallel approach. This is the approach based on an Overlap of Parallel Stages of Integration”.
Finally, it is important to remind those worried about a federation that in the Treaty Establishing the East African Community, we all committed ourselves to the federation. In the Treaty, we boldly vowed to build “an East African Community, with an East African Customs Union and a Common Market as transitional stages to and integral parts thereof, subsequently a Monetary Union and ultimately a political federation”.
kdavidmafabi1@gmail.com The writer is Senior Presidential Advisor/Political Affairs (Special Duties) State House