Writes Leo Odera Omolo

RISING insecurity tops the list of challenges to regional integration in 2012, the East African Community top officials have revealed.

The EAC region is currently under renewed pressure to deal with rising cases of piracy, cyber crime, terrorism, human trafficking and money laundering.

According to Ms Beatrice Kiraso, the EAC’s Deputy Secretary General in charge of political federation “These potential threats if not addressed could greatly undermine regional integration.

Speaking at the EAC secretariat in Arusha, Ms Kiraso cited abductions, illegal drug and arms trafficking as other serious crimes troubling the East African region. ”The threats have made it urgent for policy makers to implement the Protocol on Peace and Security, which lists about 20 goals for fostering regional peace and security.”

Meanwhile other reports appearing in local media indicated that Tanzania is hesitant to sign a protocol that is key to the East African Community integration, for the second time in as many months.

During the fourth joint meeting of the sectoral council on co-operation in defense, inter-state security and foreign policy co-ordination held in Arusha from January 16 to 19, Tanzania she said that the amendments it had proposed in November last year in Bujumbura had not been effected.

The report says,”Tanzania has always wanted a clear clause on what would happen in case a member state went to war and whether it would mean that he whole region was at war. In November during the heads of state summit in Burundi, Tanzania Minister for East African Community Affairs Samuel Sitta had put up a strong argument saying that his country was against a section in the protocol that required partner states to assist each other when at war.

The 13th Heads of State Summit held in Burundian capital, Bujumbura in November last year, which both Ugandan and Tanzanian heads of state had skipped approved the Protocol on Defense Co-operation subject to amendments of Article 17 to provide that partner states shall negotiate and conclude within one year, and opted for a Mutual Defense Pact awaiting consensus.

Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Internal Security Joshwa Orwa Ojode, who chaired the Arusha meeting last week, however, played own the Tanzanian concern, arguing that the failure to finalize the protocol was because the technical people had not finished their work.

At the same time Ms Kiraso insisted that the protocol would offer a range of interventions to help prevent and mitigate conflicts and threats.

Information emerging from Arusha says the draft Protocol was adopted by the EAC Council of Ministers a fortnight ago. The body then referred I to the sect oral council meeting for conclusion of policy guidance on counter terrorism, piracy, detention, custody and rehabilitation of offenders.

The policy, she contended, should enhance the exchange of criminal intelligence and other security information between partner states, enhance joint operations and patrols, install common communications facilities for border and interstate security, adopt the UN model law on mutual assistance on criminal matters, and implement the protocol on combating illicit drug trafficking.

The guide should also enable the exchange of training programs for security personnel, establish common mechanism for the management of refugees, formulate security measures to combat cattle rustling, and establish measures to combat proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons.

It has revealed that even South China Sea now suffers the most attacks, piracy off the East African coast- much of it carried out from Somalia- comes in a close second, as indicated by the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization {IMO}.

The UN study recently made public further indicated that 629 people –most of them crew members- were taken hostage in 2010 a number higher than anywhere else.

On Earth Future Foundation, an American non-governmental organization, in a recent study on naval piracy, estimated that Somali pirates exhorted USD 415 million in ransom over the past two years.

Including the costs of higher insurance premiums, re-routing ships, anti-piracy security, and the total annual costs for regional economies may range from between USD 7 billion and USD 12 billion, the study finds.

There are always concerns that funds obtained through piracy may find their way to terrorist networks like Al-Shabaab. Frauds and cyber crime related cases are siphoning the EAC partner states of billions of dollars annually.

Ends