Description
The revamped and revitalized East African Community (EAC) will welcome the year 2020 with a number of serious challenges that cry out for urgent strategic intervention. To begin with, peace and security is still the elephant in the room. On-going political chaos in Somalia, Burundi and South Sudan still hamper security and developmental aspirations in the region. The fact that there are overlapping mandates and competencies among the regional bodies such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) not to mention the United Nations (UN) role in peace keeping has also served to murky the environment. For instance, the unfinished business regarding the implementation of the South Sudan peace agreement still fetters economic development in the region. Similarly, corruption (both economic and political) still bedevils member states as official bureaucracy remains mired in waste, fraud and abuse. The EAC therefore needs a major strategic rethink on how to enhance good governance and promote a vibrant liberal multiparty democracy underpinned by freedom of expression and association. The present paper sketches out a framework for a new-look EAC that is fit-for-purpose in the twenty first century.
