Nairobi — President William Ruto has revisited the discourse on a regional federation for the second time in under two weeks, reiterating his position on the need to expedite efforts towards the full integration of EAC.
Ruto who highlighted the matter in his Mashujaa Day speech in Nairobi on Thursday said "rigid territorial borders are firmly on the way out, as we move towards full integration."
President Ruto had made similar remarks in Uganda on October 9 when he attended the country's independence day celebrations at the invitation of President Yoweri Museveni, urging the Ugandan leader to lead regional efforts on the matter.
"Mzee Museveni is our elder; we have tremendous respect for him and we look up to him to work so that we can eliminate the borders that separate our people in East Africa and in Africa," he said in an address delivered at Kololo Grounds.
Other than Kenya and Uganda, the five other EAC Member States rarely endorsed a political federation, the fourth and final pillar in regional integration after monetary union, the third pillar, which is also yet to be attained.
The region has however made significant progress on the two other pillars of customs union and common market.
While revisiting the matter on Thursday at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, Ruto said the East African Community (EAC) must strive to progressively remove non-tariff barriers to promote trade among Member States.
He cited progress in the areas of trade and joint infrastructure projects among interventions that had given fresh impetus to increased integration.
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"The possibility of an East African Federation is no longer a wild imagination or an idle dream. It is no longer a matter of if, it is a matter of when," Ruto said.
President Ruto who has challenged countries in the region to commit to "sharing prosperity as opposed to sharing poverty" also coted Safaricom's recent launch in Ethiopia, which is not an EAC member, as testament to growing intra-African which the 7-member block can build on.
"In Ethiopia, we launched Safaricom Ethiopia telecoms' money business, which
expanded Safaricom and Mpesa's regional footprint, dispersing ICT innovation and deepening the revenue base of the company. Simultaneously, Safaricom became the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia, and Kenya's biggest foreign investor abroad."
Ruto said Kenya alongside Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda had become "a close-knit neighbourhood, and everyone's well-being has become everybody's business."
The President said the region "with unity and integration, we will achieve much in our lifetime," adding that "these bonds of solidarity and fraternity, we shall establish an oasis of hope and infinite possibility that will be irresistible to the whole world."
