With relations within the East African Community fraying in recent months, the upcoming heads-of-state summit will be all the more important.
On reaching the town of Namanga, which sits on the boundary between Kenya and Tanzania, travellers are confronted with a half-complete, somewhat neglected and slightly hazardous border post.
Those wishing to cross from one immigration office to the other face a number of obstacles, not least the two-foot ditch that requires either a small leap across or a detour around.
In many ways this unfinished and potentially risky crossing between the two East African nations reflects the broader unfinished project of regional integration within the East African Community (EAC).
The EAC - made up of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda - is supposed to be enhancing economic and political cooperation between the five member states. But like the Namanga border post, progress has not been smooth, and potentially perilous complications remain.
These issues have been particularly marked in recent weeks with rumour, accusation and complaint issuing from within and between certain member states. Amidst these rising diplomatic tensions, some sensationalist media headlines have even asked: 'Is this the beginning of the end for EAC?'
With the EAC Heads of State Summit scheduled for the end of November, what should be made of the media hype? And what factors underscore the regional tension?
Feet-dragging and fast-tracking
At the heart of current friction is the apparent split in the EAC, with Tanzania and Burundi on the one side, and the 'Coalition of the Willing' - so called because it wants to fast-track various parts of the integration process - made up of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, on the other. Tensions between these groups have particularly intensified over the past few months.
Firstly, though not directly related to the EAC, some believe that Tanzania's relations with Uganda and Rwanda may have frayed over the recent events in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
This summer, amidst ongoing instability, Tanzania committed a large number of peacekeeping troops to the UN mission in the region tasked with removing the M23 rebels, a group both Rwanda and Uganda had been accused of supporting.
Secondly, and more directly pertinent to the EAC, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have in recent months held high-level meetings to which Tanzanian and Burundian representatives were not invited.
This led to accusations that Tanzania is being isolated, and in October, Samuel Sitta, Tanzania's minister for East African Cooperation, reportedly told parliament that the government would not recognise the outcomes of the meetings and questioned the country's continuing participation in the regional bloc.
These comments sparked a fast-paced diplomatic tennis game, played in an atmosphere of suspicion, and the rhetoric quickly took on a 'Tanzania vs. the rest' character.
Eventually, Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete felt it necessary to make a rare address to the parliament to calm fears across the region that Tanzania might pull out of the EAC.
"There are allegations that Tanzania is dragging its feet on the integration process and that it is an impediment to the integration process," he said. "I want to say from the bottom of my heart that these allegations are totally false. Tanzania is a true believer in the integration process."
Kenya's Foreign Minister, Amina Mohamed, even flew to Tanzania's economic hub of Dar es Salaam to show support for the president's speech and confirm the Kenyan government's commitment to cooperation with Tanzania.
Moving too fast?
For the time being, speculation that the EAC is on a path to disintegration - as was the fate of the first attempt at regional integration, which finally collapsed in 1977 - has been quelled by these diplomatic efforts.
But the events of the last few weeks have nevertheless revealed genuine underlying tensions in the community which must be addressed if the regional integration project is to move forward.
From the perspective of the Coalition of the Willing, Tanzania and Burundi are lagging behind in four key areas: the development of a single tourist visa, the establishment of a single customs territory, the progress of the EAC political federation, and the use of national ID cards as travel documents for nationals of the bloc.
And while Kikwete may have allayed fears that Tanzania could be about to pull out of the EAC, he did little to counter this sense that Tanzania wants to take a slower approach to integration than some of its counterparts.
"We did not agree on fast-tracking the political federation without completing the other steps," said Kikwete in the same parliamentary address.
"We have been frank about this in the appropriate forums of the EAC. Our stand comes from principle. That is, we must establish first the economic and financial mechanisms and let them take root."
This even prompted some Tanzanian MPs to express concern that the country wasn't completely serious about regional integration.
However, many others - and not just in Tanzania and Burundi - see value in taking a more cautious approach, pointing out that fast-tracking EAC integration could lead to problems in the future if it means the necessary foundations have not had time to be established.
"We could say Tanzania is lagging behind," Wanyama Masinde, director of the Centre for Regional Integration (CefRI) in Nairobi told Think Africa Press. "But they could also say we [the Coalition of the Willing] are moving too fast. Maybe we need to be cautious."
Region vs. nation
Speed of integration, however, is not the only sticking point within the EAC, and in fact a number of more fundamental concerns remain.
One particularly crucial issue is the free movement of people. This principle is seen as problematic by various stakeholders, and the policies and procedures that should regulate people's movement are highly contested.
This is especially the case in Tanzania, which has been at the heart of various controversies regarding migration in recent months. To get a work permit, Tanzania currently charges EAC citizens $2,000.
This is considerably more than that charged by any of the EAC member states; Uganda and Kenya have variable rates for different kinds of workers, Burundi charges foreign workers 3% of their gross salary, while Rwanda has waived permit fees for EAC citizens.
Tanzania's high charges mean many people from neighbouring countries don't get permits and so work illegally in the country. This situation came to a head in October when the Tanzanian government deported over 4,000 Ugandan and Rwandan migrants, leading to further tensions between the countries.
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According to Masinde, Tanzania's concerns regarding migration are related to issues around control and accumulation of land.
"There is the issue, under the Common Market Protocol, of the right of establishment," he says. "The concern in Tanzania has been land due to different land tenure systems and the form of identity documents to be used to cross borders: 'Are we going to have other people come and establish themselves here?'"
Kikwete himself noted this point in his speech to parliament, claiming, "What is costing us in the EAC is Tanzania's stand on political federation, issues of land, the labour market and immigration".
While the president went on to say that these issues should be decided on in the domestic policy domain, some sort of agreement will also have to be reached at the EAC level. Indeed, the future of the EAC rests upon being able to marry regional and national advantages.
"We can go ahead and accuse either side, but each country has got its own national interests - which encompass both local circumstances and extra-regional interests - which seem to be competing with the regional interest," says Masinde. "So we may accuse them but it's good to be able to understand what their concerns are, and they are concerns that need to be addressed."
As the EAC's five heads-of-state meet at their November summit this Saturday, it is this challenge of combining the interests of the EAC as a whole with the interests of each member country as an individual that will underlie negotiations and debates. With relations fraying in recent months, this summit could prove crucial for the future of the regional bloc.
Rob Wilson is a freelance journalist with a particular interest in the politics, history and culture of East and Southern Africa. He is a presenter on Sema Sasa Radio. Follow him on twitter @wilsonrobjames
