At what stage of EAC integration are we?
Partner states are looking for experts to draft the constitution that will guide on what kind of a federation the region will take. We expect at least three people from all the partner states to be in charge of drafting the constitution.
The deadline for having a Political Federation had been set for 2016, so what are the new timelines?
We cannot have timelines without a constitution. The regional constitution will be the guide towards the federation. It will clearly define what should be achieved at what time, when the region should have the federation, when it will be launched and over what period it will be implemented. For now there are no timelines until the constitution is in place.
In November we expect the Heads of State to approve the list of experts who will be in charge of writing the EAC constitution thereafter the process of a political federation will commence.
READ: EAC leaders meet to decide on constitution of political federation
There is the issue of disparate constitutions, with some members having done away with the presidential term limits. How will this be handled?
The constitutional team will determine that. They will guide the partner states but the final decision lies in the hands of the EAC Heads. What the experts will propose will be adopted or sent back for amendments by the presidents.
So far, what have the partner states agreed on?
In the last few consultative meetings, the partner states except one, agreed that they should have a confederation, meaning that as much as they will become one, countries will still retain some level of sovereignty. How much of their sovereignty they relinquish will be defined in the constitution.
They have also agreed to have a political federation that comes into being in a gradual and incremental process.
Source: The East African

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.