Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame today opened the second Strategic Retreat of the Council of Ministers and Heads of Organs and Institutions of the East African Community (EAC), with a renewed sense of working towards regional integrity.

The one-day meeting which convened in Kigali city follows an earlier one which was held in the same city ten years ago, with a resolve towards better integration policies.

President Kagame, who is also Chairperson of the Summit of EAC Heads of State, said that the same spirit from the earlier meeting has to be maintained if the community is to achieve simple components of integration.

Despite this resolve, the community continues to face challenges of free movement, blockage of trade as a result of non-traffic barriers, low political will to implement major infrastructure projects and worse of all, failure to meet EAC budget needs.

“We urgently need to get our house in order, both in terms of ownership, which includes paying our respective dues as well as enhancing transparency and accountability in the management of the institution,” Kagame said.

The EAC, which now has six member states and many more applications from northern horn of Africa, will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary of the renewal of the EAC.

Kagame said that getting these things right, and steering the Community in the right direction is the best gift we can give the citizens of East Africa.

Participants at the retreat will adopt a report containing recommendations and the timeline of their implementation. The report will be submitted to the Council of Ministers and to EAC organs and institutions for consideration and implementation.

The Chairperson of the Council will present a progress report at every EAC summit.

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