The East African Community (EAC) Affairs Principle Secretary (PS) Abdi Dubat has revealed that a plan is underway to transform the East African Community states into a political confederation.
Speaking during an interview at Spice FM on Tuesday, February 27, Dubat stated that EAC was in the process of formulating a Constitution to govern the confederation.
According to the PS, a committee was tasked with gathering information and conducting stakeholder engagement in all the member states, before making the first draft of the Constitution.
"We have a team of eminent persons led by the former Chief Justice of Uganda and Amos Wako (former Attorney General - Kenya) who is the Vice Chair. They are co-working in a Constitution for the confederation," Dubat stated.
"They are doing stakeholder engagements and have so far done that in Burundi, Uganda and Kenya. They are going to do this with every partner state,” he stated, highlighting the need to streamline business operations within the region.
President William Ruto through a statement released on Monday, noted that the East African nations were working towards deepening the diplomatic relations between the seven states.
“Kenya and Uganda are committed to the deepening of the long-established diplomatic and economic ties between our two countries. This relationship includes bringing all the seven East African Community nations closer in their ultimate goal to form the East African Political Federation,” the statement read in part.
EAC Structure
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation with seven member states which include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and Rwanda.
Others are South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania which hosts EAC headquarters.
The community, which aims to widen and deepen regional cooperation, in November 2023 admitted Somalia to the EAC Treaty. Somalia will become a full member once the instruments of ratification of the EAC Treaty are deposited with the Secretary-General.
In May 2017, the EAC heads of state adopted the Political Confederation, as a transitional model, to construct a powerful and sustainable economic and political bloc.
Explaining the reason for a fast-tracked process towards the creation of an East African Federation, PS Dubat noted that the first objective was to have a single currency for the community.
The Central Bank Governors from EAC member states, however, decided to postpone the adoption of a single currency to 2031 during a meeting held in Burundi.
