EAC URGED TO SHARE OUT BENEFITS AND FACILITIES EQUITABLY

By MARK KAPCHANGA
THE EASTAFRICAN

September 21 2009
The East African Community held its 18th ordinary meeting of Council of Ministers in Arusha recently amid fresh calls from member states that the Community embark on “equitable” distribution of its organs, institutions and “other benefits.”

In the meeting, it was argued that the Community should consider “a permanent seat of the East African Court of Justice as well as equitable distribution of benefits.”

As a result, member states agreed that the Secretariat should draw clear criteria so the benefits can be redistributed equitably.

“We agreed that a decentralisation framework be drawn up so that no partner state is advantaged more than the other.” EAC Minister Amason Jeffer Kingi told The EastAfrican.

Today, some member states host more than two of the EAC’s organs while some have none at all.

The EAC has seven organs: the Heads of State Summit, the Council of Ministers, the Co-ordination Committee, Sectoral Committees, the East Africa Legislative Assembly, the East African Court of Justice, and the Secretariat.

Besides the organs, there are a number of autonomous institutions such as the Nile Basin Project, the Inter Universities Council of East Africa and the Lake Victoria Environmental Programme, the East African Community Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency and the East African Development Bank.

Kenya hosts the Lake Victoria Environmental Programme in Kisumu while the rest are shared between Uganda and Tanzania.

Analysts have termed the decision by the Council of Ministers to draft criteria on the redistribution of the benefits timely as a silent tussle was “imminent” between Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi on one hand and Tanzania and Uganda on the other hand on the issue of equitable distribution of the organs.

But that is not all. A major debate is looming on the establishment of EAC headquarters, which will, allegedly be based in Tanzania.

In a meeting in Mombasa recently, Director of Trade in the EAC Secretariat, Flora Mndeme Musonda said that more than Euros 15 million ($21 million) had been secured for the construction of the head office.

Dr Musonda’s revelation comes a few months after Kenya said it was interested in hosting the Secretariat’s headquarters, saying these should be built outside Tanzania.

The idea has since been supported by Rwanda and Burundi, who say the EAC Treaty should be amended to allow the Secretariat to come to either of the three countries’ capitals.

While Mr Kingi agrees that the organs and institutions are not well distributed, he says that there is no cause for alarm.

These countries host the EAC organs because other member states have not made any formal application to host them,” he said.

To redistribute the Community’s organs and institutions, the Treaty on its establishment will have to be amended.

According to Article 136 of the Treaty, the headquarters of the Community “shall be in Arusha in the United Republic of Tanzania.”

However, there is a provision that “there may be established such offices of the Community in the partner states and elsewhere as the Council may determine.”

Mr Kingi says the EAC should borrow a leaf from the African and European Union models, whose organs are decentralised through partner states from the country hosting the headquarters.

The EU’s headquarters are in Brussels while its organs are spread out across European member states.

The AU secretariat is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but its parliament sits in South Africa.

Eala member Safina Kwekwe Tsungu told The EastAfrican that the treaty has to be changed as provided in article 150.

“We will have to cope up with the current status until we engage in a thorough review of the distribution of the organs. Of course majority of member states would like to see the change but this will only come after necessary amendments are made.” Ms Tsungu said.

Mr Kingi says EAC should borrow a leaf from the African and European Union models, whose organs are decentralised through partner states from the country hosting the headquarters.

The EU’s headquarters are in Brussels while its organs are spread out across European member states.