Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has urged Ugandans to support the East African Community as an engine for economic growth and political stability.

"If we hadn't broken up the East African Community, events that damaged our history might not have happened," Mr Mkapa said on Saturday during the First Grand Reunion of Makerere University Alumni. He added: "The tendency to be protectionists is wrong."

The five heads of state within the EAC on November 20 signed the Common Market Protocol, which will be ratified in July 2010. The protocol guarantees the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour within the five partner states - Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

Mr Mkapa's remarks, delivered at Makerere University's Freedom Square, were intended to encourage the alumni to unite and support the cause of the EAC. Mr Mkapa was President of Tanzania from 1995 to 2005.

"As the integration picks pace, I hope the alumni, who are interested in the east Africa, will be at the forefront in tracing its successful integration within the context it was established," he said.

Mr Mkapa, who was given an honorary doctorate in law on Friday and is a 1962 graduate of the university, said the institution could still be a vibrant force for economic change and political transformation.

Prof. Mondo Kagonyera, the university chancellor, said the reunion was a sign of the institution's attempt to regain its glory.

"I never studied at this university but I hold it dear to my heart," Prof. Kagonyera said. "We want Makerere to regain the glory it once had."

He handed out certificates of appreciation to some alumni, including: Mr Ananiya Akera, a roommate to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere; Ms Sarah Ntiro, the first woman graduate in East and Central Africa; Ms Josephine Nambooze, the first woman professor in the Faculty of Medicine; and Mr Charles Mbire, a Kampala businessman.