Cleaning up the EALA mess

By Martin Kitaka

There has been a heated debate over the recent EALA elections, which were smeared with intrigue, when UPC and DP boycotted the EALA elections opposition boycott; headliners like renowned legislator Ben Wacha being locked/knocked out, NRM backed Dora Byamukama losing speakership to Margaret Zziwa-(the Babu’s get to laugh last); and exposure of the levels of debate of our legislators right from when they petitioned to the East Africa Court of Justice seeking interpretation of the unambiguous Article 50 of the EALA Act and the criteria used by the candidates  to canvass support from the seemingly pre-determined electorate and oops, vocal Ken Lukyamuzi undergoing a quasi-coup de tat; among others.

This duly served to bring into the masses’ awareness the existence of the revived East African Community but apparently did not enhance the object of the political amalgamation.

This is because the EALA is a prima facie case of constructing a house beginning from the roof and completing with the basement the consequence of which is a professionally drafted and assented-to ”brief-case” organisation legally run at the cost of the unsuspecting, rather uninformed tax payer.

To justify this is my strong conviction that the enactment of the EALA as intended for politically grown states is quite pre-mature in the East Africa region’s context since there was apparent departure from the criteria which successful federations have undergone for instance in its infant stages, there should be circumstantial political, economic and social willingness by the territorial occupants of the states intending to indulge into such relations.

The political and economic waters in the region may taste as thus but prevalence of the deeply entrenched vice of tribalism and superiority complex create dissent thereby distorting the social willingness factor.

 This can, however, be overcome through a massive social unity campaign, for instance the adoption of a unilateral language by the member states, preferably English (without prejudice to the Rwandese and Burundian brothers), or music since its outreach, as may be witnessed through the usually successful multinational co-operations’ publicity campaigns, cuts through and is deeply appreciated by all.

Meanwhile, as the Kenyan political invincibles are establishing new political parties that in the long run destabilise the Kikuyu vs Luo marginalisation factor, the Baganda should be reading from the same book and begin to mingle with other native factions such as the Luo (the feud with Dr. Obote has outlived its relevance), Banyala, Banyankore (notwithstanding the contemporary political implications) and the rest; as has been similarly adopted by Rwanda through the  non-retribution policy against genocide offenders of trial by fair hearing.

Economically, the initial conditionalities must be satisfied, i.e. establishment of first a selective common market whereby several commodities are subsidised, then an absolute one where there is subsidisation on every commodity produced within whereas those from outside the region are subjected to heavier taxes.

This creates mobility of factors of production in the region from which the need for a common currency shall be realised. However, with the on-going mess in the tax authorities of these countries coupled with disparities in the levels of development, the practicability of the EALA could forever remain a fallacy.

As for politics, the first as indeed is the case should be a collective assembly. However, this only comes at the stage of completing the economic cycle so as to create reasonable justification for the policies as may be formulated which as expected should be; a joint national army with rotational leadership, sharing intelligence (as between Uganda and Kenya against Al Shabaab or the C.I.A)etc.

The cardinal limitation to this is the egocentricity and selfish intentions of the incumbent leaders who may not welcome the idea of rotational leadership and thereby lay grounds for other simultaneous problems. 

The writer is a Law student at Makerere University