Rwandan President Paul Kagame will host his Kenyan and Ugandan counterparts, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Yoweri Museveni, respectively, on October 28 and 29 to discuss joint infrastructure projects, The Citizen has reliably learnt.
On the agenda will be the planned Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali standard-gauge railway, an oil pipeline connecting the three countries, an oil refinery and construction of a modern port in Lamu, Kenya. It was reported last weekend that divisions within the East African Community (EAC) had deepened after Burundi said it was not party to the “coalition of the willing” that has left Tanzania out.
Some prominent government and business leaders have said Tanzania has been increasingly isolated by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, whose leaders have met on a number of occasions in recent months.
EAC Secretary-General Richard Sezibera said in Nairobi yesterday that he was not aware that Tanzania had been sidelined or isolated from the regional integration process.
He said alliances among some EAC partner states that excluded Tanzania were not proof that the largest country in the bloc was being systematically isolated by its partners.
“From the secretariat point of view, we are not aware. I can’t say if Tanzania has been sidelined or is a reluctant partner in the bloc,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the EAC Secretary-General’s Forum.
Dr Sezibera was pressed by journalists to explain recent events on economic integration issues from which Tanzania was excluded and whether they did not confirm that the country was being eased out of the integration process.
The EAC boss said it was not true that Tanzania was a reluctant partner in the bloc as claimed in some quarters. Allegations that the country is delaying EAC programmes were repeated again yesterday during the forum, which attracted representatives from civil society organisations and the private sector in the region.
“If the implementation of the EAC activities is used as a yardstick, then all countries are guilty,” Dr Sezibera said. He added that it could not be claimed that Tanzania was paying lip service to EAC aspirations by differing with its partners on issues such as the use of national IDs as valid travel documents.
“The Treaty is very clear. No partner state can be sidelined. You know we operate on the principle of subsidiarity and variable geometry in which every country is allowed enough room for internal consultations on key decisions,” he said.
He added, however, that the Tanzanian authorities were “more competent” to explain if the country was being sidelined because the matter had not been officially brought to the attention of the Arusha-based Secretariat. The Minister for EAC Cooperation, Mr Samuel Sitta, said recently that the government was concerned by the way Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda were sidelining Tanzania in some key regional projects.
source The Citizen
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