April 1, 2000
Tervil Okoko
PANA Correspondent
NAIROBI, Kenya (PANA) - Lawyers attending a forum in Nairobi said Friday that the East African Co-operation treaty document has several internal inconsistencies that cannot allow for the formation of a political federation.
Participants at the two-day East African Law Society conference in the Kenyan capital were told that the document should be looked into to give way to the intended establishment of a federal state of East Africa.
The conference was called to give a constructive critique of the treaty that has given inspiration to the creation of an East African federal state from the basis of the existing socio-economic co-operation.
It also looked at the four key aspects underlying the progress towards the creation of the federation.
These include the enabling provisions of the treaty, the involvement of the people of East Africa in the integration process, the operationalisation of the treaty and overcoming initial challenges.
According to the chairman of the Law Society of Kenya, Gibson Kamau Kuria, the preamble to the 1999 treaty for establishment of the East African Community put together with articles 6 and 7 of the fundamental principles of the community and its operations, indicates the ultimate formation of a people-centred federal state.
He said the state would adhere to the principles of democracy, rule of law, transparency, human rights and equality.
"It is for us now to examine the provisions of the treaty relating to the East African Legislative Assembly to see if and how they fulfil the criteria for the federal legislature as observed before," he said.
In his keynote address, the East African Co- operation's secretary, Francis Muthaura, said that the objectives of the treaty are aimed at developing policies and programmes with a view to widening and deepening integration in the political, economic, social and cultural fields, research and legal judicial affairs for mutual benefit of the partner states.
Muthaura, in a speech read on his behalf by a legal council of the East Africa Co-operation secretariat officer, Wilbert Kaahwa, pointed out that the draft treaty was published for public scrutiny and debate to widen the scope for public ownership of the treaty.
"The integration process is faced with the challenge of making the organs and the institutions live up to the expectation of ultimately creating a political federation," he said.
He continued: "The biggest challenge we face now is to translate the opportunities offered in the treaty into tangible benefits for the people.
However, with political will and support of the people for the implementation of the treaty, the task ahead may not be insurmountable."
Pointing out that substantial amounts of resources will be required to implement the treaty, Muthaura said that there was need for sustained mobilisation of external resources, especially for the development of infrastructure.
He added that the integration process would ensure that the entire process does not accentuate the existing imbalances and that those that may emerge are addressed forthwith.