Professor Macharia Munene of the Nairobi-based United States International University says with the revival of the East African community over the last decade,

businesses in the region are growing. Already, the EAC says over the past 5 years, trade has increased among the 5 partners by nearly 50%.

Among the businesses profiting from an integrated market is the Kenya-based supermarket chain Nukumatt, which is expanding into Uganda and Rwanda. Munene is encouraged by the progress of the integration effort:

“[The telecommunications industry] is doing well; the Nakumatt chains are expanding, both banking and financial sectors, the ongoing construction of infrastructure…and building industry is expanding very fast. The agriculture industry, especially large scale agriculture, is also going to do well. [For example], if a country like Uganda is better at sugar production than Kenya, then it is in the interest of Kenya to find something different that they are good in production, say coffee or tea. This will ensure agriculture expands in a big way.”

Munene says breaking down barriers to business and boosting job growth among the 5 states is likely to reduce parochialism and ethnic tensions.

But moving from an economic union to a political one may be more difficult.

Kenya political scientist, Wanyande, says the larger the EAC becomes, the more difficult it becomes to manage disagreements. And although the grouping also includes a regional court and legislature, problems between them are still decided at a yearly meeting of the so-called Summit, an organ of the EAC made up of the heads of state of the 5 countries that make up the community.