Members pull apart: Is this the beginning of the end of EAC?
Saturday November 02 2013
Tanzania says it is thinking of stronger economic ties with DRC and Burundi as the third meeting of “coalition of the willing” pulls in South Sudan. TEA Graphic
Tanzania’s decision to seek closer economic ties with Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to counter grand infrastructure plans by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda will reshape the political-economic map of the region, even as the country says it remains committed to the East African Community.
A spokesman for President Jakaya Kikwete told The EastAfrican that the Tanzanian leader intends to attend the EAC Heads of State Summit in Kampala at the end of the month, although the country is looking west to find new political and economic allies.
“Nobody is moving out of the EAC,” Salva Rweyemamu said in a telephone interview on Friday. “We are still very loyal members but we are free to engage with any country on a bilateral or trilateral basis like other countries.”
Tanzania’s place in the regional economic bloc has come under scrutiny after EAC Minister Samuel Sitta was quoted last week as saying officials have been directed to stay away from meetings convened by the EAC.
READ: Tanzania officially renounces ‘coalition of the willing’
“For instance, there is a meeting going on now in Nairobi and the higher authority in the country has directed the minister for foreign affairs not to attend,” Mr Sitta told MPs in Tanzania, according to The Citizen newspaper. “Tomorrow, there is another meeting in Burundi whose agenda is similar to what the three countries are advocating and I have directed the deputy minister [who is in Bujumbura for another engagement] not to attend.”
Snubbed invitation
President Kikwete snubbed an invitation to the Transform Africa technology summit in Kigali, partly because, according to officials, it coincided with the third infrastructure summit between Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda taking place in that city.
Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, who was also invited to the technology summit but not to the infrastructure one, also stayed away.
READ: Kikwete, Nkurunziza miss the third infrastructure summit
Leaders from the three countries first met in June under what has come to be known as the “Coalition of the Willing” to discuss joint investments in a new standard gauge railway, an oil refinery in Uganda and oil pipelines. They were joined in Kigali by President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, who is expected to join the grouping.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni told journalists in Kigali that the coalition was discussing logistics along the Northern Corridor trade route that links Mombasa to Goma and would involve Tanzania once discussions turned to the Southern Corridor, which runs from Dar es Salaam to Kigali and beyond.
Tanzanian officials have however publicly protested after the coalition discussed issues such as the single tourist visa, work permit fees and political federation that are already before EAC organs.
“It pains us if our partners are acting behind our back,” Mr Sitta told Tanzanian MPs in Dodoma, adding that the country was treading cautiously in its relations with the rest of the EAC states.
Bad blood
The crisis in the EAC can be traced back to May when President Kikwete advised Rwanda to consider holding peace talks with armed rebel groups based in eastern DRC.
President Paul Kagame responded angrily to the proposal with Kigali insisting it will never negotiate with groups it accuses of participating in the 1994 genocide.
When US President Barack Obama snubbed Kenya, the land of his father, to visit Tanzania, Presidents Museveni, Kagame and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta met in Kampala at the time to agree on quicker reforms, joint investments in infrastructure and a speedier way to a political federation.
Tanzania’s expulsion of Ugandan, Rwandan, Congolese and Burundi refugees from the north of the country, including many who had lived there for decades, added to the tension but the divergent viewpoints now appear likely to be cemented in a realignment of political and economic allies.
READ: Tanzania expels EAC immigrants, hikes fees
Last week’s summit in Kigali saw the rollout of a Single Customs Territory in which taxes on imported goods will be paid on arrival in Mombasa and trucks weighed only once at the border into Uganda or Rwanda. Strategically, this move strengthens Mombasa’s position as the preferred trading port for Uganda and Rwanda.
The expected entry of oil-rich but infrastructure-poor South Sudan creates a new economic bloc with almost 100 million people and gives economies of scale to plans for the Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor. Should Ethiopia join the coalition, it would create an economic bloc with a population larger than that of Nigeria.
Senior officials involved in the coalition privately indicate that they expect Tanzania to eventually join them.
“All we are doing is accelerating the progress but we expect to continue working with our brothers,” a senior Ugandan minister said.
However, the quick pace of the plans means the train is likely to have left the station by the time the five heads of state are set to meet later this month under the EAC.
Salvage Southern Corridor
To salvage the Southern Corridor, on which there are also plans for a new railway and a mega port at Bagamoyo, Tanzania is now moving to cement its ties with Burundi, DRC and, possibly, the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Both sides are keen to court Burundi. The EastAfrican has learnt that its infrastructure minister was invited to the Kigali summit but stayed away despite having attended the second in Mombasa.
Small and poor Burundi is a key ally for Tanzania, offering a strategic geographical link to the much bigger prize of the mineral-rich and infrastructure-poor DRC.