- The committee is chaired by Uganda’s retired Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki while Kenya’s former AG Amos Wako is the vice chairman.
- The committee is currently collecting views from stakeholders and opinion leaders in Kenya through national consultative forums.
Image: HANDOUT
President William Ruto wants the Committee of Experts which is drafting the constitution for the proposed East Africa Community Political Confederation to fast-track the process.
President Ruto who met the committee at State House in Nairobi on Thursday urged them to have the first draft of the constitution latest by the end of June 2024.
The committee is chaired by Uganda’s retired Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki while Kenya’s former AG Amos Wako is the vice chairman.
The President said East Africans have always lived together and would not wait for the partner states to establish the confederation in order to continue with their lives. He added that the citizens were well ahead of their national governments in as far as the integration process was concerned.
Ruto said East Africans wanted to live together and do business regardless of national boundaries, and urged EAC partner states to therefore endeavour to catch up with them and actualise the Political Confederation as fast as possible.
He said the idea of a federation was conceived after independence in the early 1960s by the founding fathers of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. He said the ongoing expansion of the community would be an asset for the people of East Africa and Africa as a whole.
The committee is currently collecting views from stakeholders and opinion leaders in Kenya through national consultative forums.
President Ruto pledged that the Kenyan government would give $1 million to the EAC Secretariat to support national consultations on Political Confederation being conducted by committee.
The President also pledged to convince the other partner states to contribute so that the process of drafting the constitution is finished in time as directed by the summit.
Ruto said partner states should not entertain the barriers occasioned by the boundaries created by the former colonial powers for their own imperial interests. He instead urged the partner states to work together and collapse all the boundaries for the sake of integration in the region and beyond.
He cited prosperity for the region, strategic economy and security and the fact that East Africans were people of the same origins, as the major reasons why the region needs to integrate and embrace the unity of the region.
The President reiterated that a borderless Africa would benefit from the prosperity that comes with integration, noting that integration would provide for a bigger market for the goods and services.
Justice Odoki told the President that the committee concluded stakeholders’ consultations in Burundi and Uganda.
He added that in Kenya, the committee had covered the entire countryside and was now left with Nairobi region to conclude consultations in the country.
Justice Odoki informed the President that there had been very good ideas and recommendations that emerged from Kenyans during the consultations.
“I can confidently tell you that, we are trailing behind the citizens wishes in terms of the need for a political integration Mr. President,” said Justice Odoki.
The chairperson disclosed that the people they had interacted with in Kenya wanted the EAC Political Confederation in place in the shortest possible time.