Amost a year after the five East African Community partner states passed the Protocol on Foreign Policy Coordination, which provides for collaboration on diplomatic and consular matters, none has ratified it.

Foreign Affairs ministers of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi signed the crucial protocol in December 2010, and it was supposed to have been ratified by member countries by June 2011, but until now not a single country had ratified it, contrary to what the EAC summit of heads of state had directed.

“The partner states are yet to complete the ratification and deposit the instruments of ratification with the EAC Secretary General,” a report sumitted to the EAC Council of Ministers recently read in part.

During the EAC Council of Ministers talks in Arusha, Burundi reported that the protocol had been adopted by Parliament while Uganda informed that the protocol was before the Cabinet.

Both Tanzania and Kenya were at the stage of finalizing the ratification process, while Rwanda had just embarked on the process.

Speaking to journalists who attended the EAC-GIZ training in Bujumbura last December, the bloc’s deputy secretary general in charge of Political Federation Beatrice Kiraso blamed the partner states for dragging their feet in implementing various commitments, including protocols.

"Perhaps we need to go back to the drawing board to assess whether we are still committed to this integration process, because today we make few steps forward, and the following day we are back to square one," she said.

She equated the EAC partner states behaviour to Jesus's statement during his crucifixion, when he said:  "My spirit is willing but my body is weak.”

Kiraso also faulted the consensus approach in reaching decisions in the EAC, saying: “If we will continue to apply a consensus practice the sluggish members will always delay the integration because, under the arrangement, even if four partner states agree and one disagrees we cannot move on.”

Tanzanian Foreign Affairs minister Bernard Membe once said that the foreign coordination policy protocol bound the EAC partner states to collaborate in multilateral missions abroad with an eye to reducing the operational costs.

“Instead of setting up foreign offices everywhere in the world, EAC members will concentrate resources in countries where they have diplomatic or commercial interests,” Membe said.

The common foreign policy is a legally binding agreement for all partner states to act collectively and operate together on issues of foreign policies as well as safeguarding the common values, fundamental interests and independence of the region.

 “Once ratified, the EAC partner states will be acting collectively against regional terrorism and piracy, which is eroding the economic performance and raising the cost of doing business,” he noted.

The partner states, under the protocol, ought to jointly present and support each member’s candidates for competitive positions in international organizations.

Kenya’s permanent secretary in charge of EAC Affairs David Nalo said the move to harmonize consular and visa services for EAC citizens would be a major step in deepening integration from the political outlook.

The harmonization of consular and visa services, Nalo said, would facilitate cooperation on matters of security, information sharing and immigration policy.

The move would also make the region more attractive for businesses, service providers, tourism, students and other East Africans who wished to exploit the potential.

Chapter 23 of the treaty establishing the EAC provides for co-operation in political matters. Under Article 123, the partner states commit themselves to establish common foreign and security policies.        

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