DODOMA: Tanzania will never quit
the East African Community and will
do everything in its power to make
sure the community survives and
becomes prosperous despite efforts
by Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to
side-line it, President Jakaya Kikwete
told the Parliament Thursday.
“We are in the EAC to stay. We have
come from so far. We have sacrificed
so much to give up now. We will do
everything in our power to make sure
the EAC survives and achieve its
ultimate goal of political federation,”
President Kikwete told the Parilament
with President of Zanzibar Dr Ali
Mohammed Shein, Vice President Dr
Ghalib Bilali, Prime Minister Mizengo
Pinda and Chief Justice Othman
Chande in attendance.
Mr Kikwete who is just back from
meetings in South Africa where he
met Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of
Kenya and Yoweri Museveni of
Uganda said he has started engaging
his counterparts to find out exactly
what the problem is and try to
improve relations.
He said allegations that Tanzania was
an impediment in the integration
were not true despite the fact that
they have been repeated several
times.
“Tanzania is an active participant in
the integration process and is
fulfilling its part of the bargain,” he
said.
But he added that Tanzania will not
agree to fast racking the political
federation by jumping other key
integration processes such as the
Monetary Union.
Speaking with an intensity rarely seen
on the ever smiling President, Mr
Kikwete told a fully packed House
that he was, however, highly puzzled
and deeply saddened by efforts to
sideline Tanzania even in issues that
have all along been discussed at the
level of the EAC summit meetings.
He said he was asking himself
countless questions on why Tanzania
is being side-lined.
“Is there a conspiracy to push
Tanzania out of the EAC? Is it that my
counterparts from Kenya, Rwanda
and Uganda hate me personally? It is
difficult to even imagine the answers,”
President Kikwete said.
He said Tanzania had every reason to
ask what has happened.
“We met in April 28 this year at
summit in Arusha. Two months later
they meet again alone to discuss how
to implement the same issues that we
discussed in April, and without
inviting me. This is a sign to isolate
Tanzania. How can we integrate
through isolation?” he wondered.
Mr Kikwete’s reaction comes after
Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya,
Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul
Kagame of Rwanda held a series of
three meetings this year, the latest
being October 28 in Kigali where they
discussed and agreed to start the
implementation several issues
including infrastructure projects, the
political federation and the single
customs territory.
President Kikwete affirmed that he
has never been invited in the three
tripartite meetings.
“They call the tripartite ‘the coalition
of the willing’. My question is ‘who,
then, is not willing in the EAC
integration process?’ Why don’t they
invite us and see if we are willing or
not?” Mr Kikwete asked.
Kikwete said he is of the view that
Tanzania is being sidelined because of
its avowed stand on the political
federation, land, immigration and
movement of labour.
“I might be wrong, but my guess is
that we are being sideline because we
insist that we should not jump key
integration steps such as the
Monetary Union for the political
federation. But in this and all other
issues we have the EAC Protocol to
back us,” he noted.
He said despite the fact that two or
more countries are allowed to meet
over bilateral or trilateral issues they
are allowed to do so only to discuss
issues that are not in the EAC protocol
or which have not been decided upon
in the EAC Summit meetings.
They can also decide to meet and
decide on taking over implementation
of issues agreed upon by the EAC only
after permission from the secretariat,
Kikwete said.
“However the ‘coalition of the willing’
has met and deliberated on issues
under the auspice of EAC integration.
These include the political federation
and the single customs territory,”
noted Kikwete.
Despite the fact that the three
countries can go forward with the
infrastructure projects without
Tanzania the decision to sideline the
country was against the spirit of the
integration since Tanzania had shown
interest in participating in all the
projects being undertaken.
It was expected that the Mombasa-
Kampala-Kigali standard gauge
railway line would branch to
Tanzania; the Eldoret-Kampala-Kigali
oil pipeline would branch to Mwanza;
Tanzania was invited, and in fact
wanted, to invest in the Uganda oil
refinery; the electricity issue was
agreed together through the EAC
Power pool project.

Posted by Blyth on 12:46. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0