News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisaumu City.
As the scramble for the most lucrative position in the East African Community intensified, two outspoken Kenyan MPs have come out full blast against their government ambition to see its man at the helm of the EAC hot seat in Arusha.
The two legislators want their country to give up its quest for the position f the Secretary General of the EAC in favor if either Rwanda or Burundi,
Dr Bonny Khalwale {Ikolomani} and Duncan Mungatana {Garsen} told newsmen in Nairobi this week that Kenya’s quest for the position was threatening the unity of the East African Community.
According to the EAC Treaty, this position is supposed to be rotational. And now that the current holder Ambassador Dr Juma V. Mwapachu is expected to retire from his five year tenure of office, Dr Mwapachu is a Tanzanian and his position is supposed to be filled on a rotational basis.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have filled this position ever since the community was reborn in 1999.
As far as the matter stands, it would be expected that Rwanda or Burundi would be the next in line. However, Kenya has been reported in the recent past as saying that it has really never occupied the seat substantively and now wants the chance to do so.
The two Kenyan MPs accused two unnamed top government officials of allegedly pushing President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odingato back Kenya’s quest for the seat, which is scheduled to fall vacant in April this year.
The two legislators said that some senior government official in Nairobi recently travelled to Uganda with the intention to lobby and convince President Museeni to help Kenya realize its quest for the seat.
“It is sad that the government has gone so desperately to lobbying for the support of the Ugandan leader to help Kenya illegal quest for the seat,” said Dr Khalwale.
On his part Mungatana who is also the Secretary General of the Martha Karua led Narc-Kenya party which had pulled out of the PNU amalgamation of parties expressed the fears that the future of the united community was under a serious threat following Kenyans “selfish” interests in the seat.
“We have to leave it for Rwanda or Burundi, because Kenya as a senior member of the EAC that its chance and now it is time for others.”
At the same time Rwanda and Burundi insist that it is their turn to produce a candidate for the post which falls vacant in April. However, Kenya insists it has not served the full five year term in the past.
The position is currently held by Ambassador Mwapachu a Tanzanian, while his predecessor Nuwe Amanya Mushega was from Uganda. Bu before Mushega, Kenya’s Francis Muthaura had served as the executive secretary at the secretariat of the Commission for the East African Co-operation from 1996 to 2001.
Muthaura who is now the Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Kenyan Cabinet becomes the first Secretary General after the EAC Treaty came into force in 1999 and the new set of the EAC established in July 2000.
Rwanda and Burundi are the latest entrants into the EAC and are the only two countries that have not produced a secretary general.
Mungatana cautioned that the open campaign for Museveni’s re-election in Uganda by a number of senior Kenyan politicians was a breach of the international relations and could jeopardize Kenya’s business relationship with Uganda if Museveni lost the election.
The most intriguing question that emerges is; Why the position of the Secretary General of EAC, which would not ordinarily be an issue that would raise heads because Arusha’s marginal influence in the regional political capital, is now a political hot-button issue?
Political pundits and observers are now beginning to connect the dots to the succession politics at the national and regional level as we near 2017 when four of the five current presidents will be retiring from power, and the incumbent post-Kibaki head of state will be seeking re-election.
At a regional level, President Museveni is said to be the influential force behind Kenya’s desire to get its own national picked to take over Dr Mwapachu’s job. President Museveni once publicly declared that he wants to be the first president of an EAC political federation, which is mooted around 2017or thereabouts.
According to observers, consolidating Museveni’s then three decade rule into a regional – or even pan-Africa –elder statesman status would be an enticing retirement package.
This according to an article published by the EASTAFRICAN weekly especially if it would also coincide with a time when Uganda would have been pumping oil out if its Lake Albert basin for at least five years, meaning that he could back his desire to be a regional hegemony with growing petrodollars treasure.
Museveni profile in Arusha would transform its political profile, where it would start exerting some influence in member’s capitals.
The reports says in parts that if Kenya succeeds in getting one of its own to succeed Mwapachu in Arusha, it would serve Museveni’s ambitions better by providing a predictable ally who would spearhead the most difficult transformation of the EAC into a Monetary Union with a single currency and a political federation with a popularly elected leader.
Ends