By Lake Zone Watch Analyst
On March 4, this year, Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, became the 8TH full member of the East African Community (EAC). The Horn of Africa nation was admitted into the EAC alliance by the Summit of EAC Heads of State on November 24 last year.
The fundamental question to political pundits of the EAC integration is: “What does Somalia’s entry into the regional political and economic grouping mean to the welfare of other member states?”
This, to say the least, is a difficult question which needs in-depth analysis and comprehension of the historical links of East African countries.
Our everyday life is full of examples to show that no human being can live apart from others to discuss common problems.
Somalia, like the rest of other EAC member states, bears strong feelings for all other brother African countries as its ties are not merely ties of sentiment but there have been political links and economic co-operation for many years.
East Africa, leave alone the boundaries set up by colonial powers, is historically and geographically a sing unit. Practical cooperation between Eastern Africans extends back for many years. Some eminent leaders of newly-independent African countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s advocated for the spirit of Pan-Africanism driving away selfish regional interests. That spirit is still burning in the East African region as Africa struggles to achieve economic integration spearheaded by such regional organisations as the EAC, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In East Africa, our peoples share a common past and, indeed, people of the same tribe can be found on either side of the boundaries of the eight countries.
We have Somalis in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; we have Luos in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania; and we have the haughty Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania. There are so many tribes found in each East African country that crossed borders.
This justifies the assertion that East Africa is historically a single unit irrespective of the political divide.
The East African countries would greatly benefit from running common services in the current globalised world economy. Thus by pooling their resources, they will save money and technical skills and provide more efficient and cheaper services, some of which each country may not be able to afford on its own.
A country like Somalia has learned many lessons from the founder countries of the EAC — Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – that in unity there is peace; in unity there is progress and in unity there is stability.
In the whole East African region, Tanzania set the example when its sister countries of Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined together to form the United Republic of Tanzania in April 1964.
This year Tanzania celebrates with pomp and pageantry its 60th anniversary of the Union, thanks to the farsightedness of two leaders, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika and Abeid Amani Karume of Zanzibar.
Without going into many, many details it suffices to say that Somalia’s entry into the EAC is a healthy move for a country torn by civil war. In the EAC it will find stability, harmony and progress. A country divided against itself will find solace in the EAC family.