Nairobi — With the Common Market coming into effect, the East African Community (EAC) members are aware that no integration can be possible without an elaborate programme on peace and security.

As a result, the EAC has identified 15 objectives as part of the strategy for regional peace and security that was developed in 2007. Memories of the post-election violence in Kenya, in which the EAC was unable to intervene, and riots in Uganda, have awakened the regional bloc to come up with concrete security measures.

Although inter-state conflicts do exist, intra-state conflicts are the most serious challenge, with governance being the most prominent sources of grievances. Unemployment and under-development have also created fertile grounds for recourse to crime. Degradation of the environment, climatic change, and competition for meagre natural resources are other sources of concern of insecurity.

There are also new generation threats to peace and security that continue to emerge, including piracy, terrorism, cyber crime and identity theft, counterfeiting, money laundering, and human trafficking. Experience has shown that success in deepening economic integration can only prosper in an environment that is peaceful, stable, and secure.

The EAC has put in place an institutional framework, through the establishment of various sectoral councils and committees, to give direction and policy guidance for cooperation in defence, inter-state security, as well as foreign policy. These include the Sectoral Council on Cooperation in Defence, Inter State Security, Foreign Policy Coordination, Joint Sectoral Councils on Defence, and Inter State Security and Foreign Policy Coordination.

The EAC Regional Peace and Security Strategy lists 15 goals for fostering regional peace and security. These include enhancing the exchange of criminal intelligence and other security information between partner states, enhancing joint operations and patrols, installing common communication facilities for border and interstate security, adopting the UN model law on mutual assistance on criminal matters, and implementing the protocol on combating illicit drug trafficking.

Others include exchanging training programmes for security personnel, establishing common mechanisms for the management of refugees, formulating security measures to combat terrorism, establishing measures to combat cattle rustling, and establishing measures to combat proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons.

All EAC partner states are signatories to the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the Great Lakes, Horn of Africa, and Bordering States.

The protocol criminalises illicit trafficking, manufacturing, and possession and misuse of small arms and light weapons and/or falsifying, illicitly obliterating, removing or altering the markings on small arms and light weapons. Furthermore, memorandum of understanding on Cooperation in Defence Matters focuses on joint military training, joint operations, technical assistance, and visits and exchange programmes to engender the spirit of comradeship.

There is also the Nyerere Centre for Peace Research, which has been operational for the past three years to provide EAC with relevant and timely research, training and information on areas of peace and security, foreign policy and political affairs. On a wider scope, EAC has enhanced coordination of peace in the continent through the African Union.