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Governments in East African Community partetner states have been challenged to ensure maximum participation of their citizens in the integration process as well as formulating an accountability mechanism for responsible leaders to ensure a fruitful integration process.
Most political leaders including Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have been blamed for not giving feedback to the people on what is going on in the EAC, though they claim to represent them.
This was raised yesterday by members of the Vision East Africa Forum (VEAF) who are meeting in Arusha for two days to discuss among other things research reports on citizen participation in the EAC integration process.
Presenting her report, Prof Bernadette Killian from the University of Dar es Salaam said citizenry participation in the EAC integration process is still very limited despite that some articles in the treaty insists on the matter.
She said the task has been left to non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and political parties, but unfortunately most of the political parties even do not have EAC agendas in their manifestos and never even talk about it in their rallies.
“The EAC integration process in Tanzania is not given serious attention,” she said adding that the slogan that it is people centered and market driven is not a realistic.
A VEAF member from Uganda, Woneka Oliver suggested a formulation of an accountability mechanism that will make MPs in EALA be responsible for giving feedback to the people on the community issues.
“I don’t understand why EAC citizens are not aware of the integration process while they have people representing them in the Assembly?,” she questioned adding that it is the legislator’s responsibility to educate and inform people on the integration process.
Ernest Ndayizeye from Burundi said that in his country the government has decided to embark on language teaching (English and Kiswahili) to make its people participate since most of them cannot speak the community’s official languages.
Prof Mwambustya Ndebesa from Uganda called on citizenry participation to be done from the beginning because there are still some people who don’t know why exactly the five governments are integrating.
According to him, people’s participation is likely to improve good governance, promote consensus and strengthen accountability of the EAC structure.
“Integration process is dominated by politicians regardless of the people centered concept…legislators sit on behalf of the people but they don’t give feedback to them,” he said.
Dr Kitila Mkumbo from the University of Dar es Salaam said citizens hesitate to participate in the integration process because so far they haven’t benefited from the community. He gave an example of the collapsed community in 1977 saying there were tangible social services that benefited people including railways and air transport.
Earlier, in his opening remarks Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Resident Director, Dr Stefan Chrobot underscored the need for people’s involvement to ensure a people centered community as described in the treaty.
He called on countries to properly check their policies especially before moving to the monetary union. He said integration is good not only for economic benefits but also politically.
Asiimwe Stephen from the Global Pan African Movement in Uganda blamed political parties for not prioritizing issues of EAC in their agenda. He said in Uganda politicians only talk about the community during EALA elections to impress voters. He said that just 10 kilometers from Kampala, the villagers are completely unaware of the integration process, though they have representatives.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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