When East African Heads of State and Government meet in Arusha today, Saturday, March 7, 2026, they will need, very sternly, to call each other out for letting the East African Community (EAC)’s future dangle in limbo. Intergovernmental cooperation is basically an extension of a country’s civil service. Who on earth runs a civil service they do not fund?
Some of us tend to think that the matter goes beyond mere administrative delays in remitting membership fees. There have been growing concerns in certain quarters about the transparency and accountability surrounding the management and timely release of funds intended for the Community. If confidence in the system is to be restored, partner states must demonstrate greater openness in how these obligations are handled.
The Summit was preceded by the meeting of the Council of Ministers, which is, according to the Treaty that established the EAC, the highest policy organ of the Community. What courage do ministers from countries that are deep in arrears of membership dues have to sit on the same table with the others and set the agenda for their respective Heads of State at their Summit?
All said, the EAC simply needs to downsize. Do we really need nine members from each partner state to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA)? Do we need rotational sittings in the capitals of member states whilst there is an august Chamber in Arusha for regional legislators to hold their meetings in a very comfortable environment?
But we all know the motivation often attributed to the rotations. Questions have repeatedly been raised about the additional financial implications of holding sessions outside Arusha, including seating allowances and per diems that inevitably increase the cost of each sitting. At a time of fiscal strain, such expenditures deserve honest scrutiny.
Given that EALA has 72 members, that is more than 100 people having to be rotated around Eastern Africa at least quarterly in a year. That is not coughing out small money, given that the expenditure is unnecessary because there is a fully fledged House in Arusha for their meetings, built in part with donor funding. Actually, three EALA members from each partner state are enough.
Also, do we really need to have two Deputy Secretaries-General and five directors who basically do the same thing? Currently, one of the Deputy Secretaries-General is from South Sudan, a partner state that has faced persistent challenges in clearing its membership arrears. Also, South Sudan was supposed to produce the Secretary-General (SG) to succeed the outgoing Kenya’s Ms Veronica Nduva.
Even if South Sudan were not in arrears, how can you have one country producing the principal chief executive officer of the Community and one of his two deputies? It is said the next Secretary-General should now come from Uganda. But for the reasons stated above, that is also not quite right because one of the Deputy Secretaries-General currently is from Uganda.
I stand to be corrected. It could disturb the rotational rule, but it is my humble opinion that the next Secretary-General should come from Tanzania.
The EAC needs to function as a unit and as a gathering of brothers and sisters eying not only “ultimately political federation” but also eventual African unity. We cannot be an inspiration and model if we do not first put, and strive to put, our house in order.
