Once upon a time, the Hare, upon ridiculing the Tortoise's short feet and slow pace, assented to a proposal for a race.
When the race started, the Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep. At last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal, and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue.
During the inauguration of President William Ruto at Kasarani last month, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni made a compelling appeal for the integration of the East Africa Community. Museveni knows that the EAC is a sleeping giant that must be awakened through enhanced integration.
Last week during Mashujaa Day celebrations, President Ruto echoed these sentiments and stated that rigid territorial borders were firmly on their way out to make way for an East African Federation.
The East Africa Community integration has been a priority for the previous administrations making it possible for Kenyans to cross over to Uganda and Rwanda with only an ID. Kenya has also taken a lead role in peace initiatives such as leading the peace talks in South Sudan and Somalia.
Historically, East Africa has always operated as one community. East African Airways Corporation, more commonly known as East African Airways, was an airline jointly run by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from 1946 to 1977.
The East African Currency Board provided a common currency for Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania from 1919 to 1966.
In 1977, the East African Community collapsed due to Kenya requesting more seats in the decision-making organs, disagreements between member countries and the different economic systems between countries, primarily between Tanzania and Kenya
Since then, we have seen a lot of progress with the EAC coming back to life. The organs of the East African Community were established under Article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community in November 2001.
There has been a lot of progress on the common market with a common currency being a great key to this in the coming future. The EAC anthem has become a key feature across all the countries during major events.
An East African Federation would have a lot of benefits for all the countries within the EAC as there is already a strong foundation. Such a union would see easier and accelerated cooperation with the international community where people with large businesses would for instance not have to deal with six tax regimes.
The East Africa Federation will be fronting a population of over 300 million people and more than $240 billion worth of GDP would have an economic appeal to the rest of the continent and outside.
Historically, pan-Africanists such as Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gaddafi advocated a United Africa. This dream can still be realised in our generation but it must start with the different regions uniting, then coming together in future to create a united continent.
Economically, Kenya will also benefit a lot. Last year, the refurbished Kisumu port resumed oil exports to Uganda in December with the first consignment of 22 wagons loaded with 894,000 litres of diesel.
With the enhanced connectivity through Lake Victoria, Kenya is set to benefit further from these Ugandan and DRC imports. The Kenya Ports Authority plans to increase Kisumu’s local imports to 130,000 tonnes by 2025, and 180,000 tonnes by 2035, from 22,000 in 2014.
On average, Uganda imports 85 million litres of fuel through Kenya and Tanzania. Kenya’s Port of Mombasa handles 92 per cent of these imports with the remainder going through Dar es Salaam.
Mombasa port is currently the biggest in East Africa and the second largest in Africa in terms of throughput and receives an average of 3,000 containers daily. This makes it very critical for the EAC and therefore, Kenya must work with its neighbours to make it as efficient as possible.
The EAC can provide the region with various opportunities that make trade cheaper. Production can also be done together making it easier for the countries to benefit from the economies of scale.
