High Hopes Abound for the East African Community

Planned railways, highways and new investment boost potential for integrating market of nearly 130 consumers

28 December 2010

The East African Community is rapidly evolving. The region of nearly 130 million people has an overall GDP of about 60 billion dollars, and is still growing.

Over the past 10 years, it has launched a Customs Union with the phased introduction of common tariffs. In essence, all countries have a uniform set of duties on imports coming from outside the region. And it has eliminated duties on goods and products traded among EAC member countries.

It‘s also enacted a common set of regulations called the Common Market Protocol that calls for

all countries to adopt common laws on labor, taxation and immigration. The protocol also promises the free movement of services and workers, who are allowed to settle in any of the member countries.

Plans are underway for a $50 million dollar regional railway system to be completed over the next 5 years. Tanzania and Kenya are finalizing plans to interconnect their power systems. They’re also building a 240-kilometer road and trade route that will connect Arusha to Nairobi and to Mombasa.

The original EAC was created in 1967, but dissolved 10 years later.

Martin Shikuku is a veteran Kenyan politician and a proponent of regional integration who witnessed the formation and the eventual collapse of the original grouping: