Arusha — EAST African partner states are set to resume national consultations for the drafting of the Constitution of the regional political confederation.

Regional constitutional experts drafting the EAC Political Federation Constitution are set to hold consultations with various stakeholders.

They include, amongst them; the civil society, local leaders, opinion leaders and the business community to seek their views on what kind of Political Confederation they would desire for the EAC.

The roadmap for drafting this Constitution is set to be reviewed by the constitutional experts during the period of consultations in Kenya and submitted to EAC Partner States for planning purposes.

EAC Secretary General, Dr Peter Mathuki, while speaking during a meeting with the Chairperson of the Constitutional Experts, Justice Benjamin Joses Odoki at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, stated that the EAC Secretariat is committed to fast-tracking the process and is striving to hold the public consultations across all EAC Partner States in the next two years.

Justice Odoki was accompanied by the Deputy Chairperson of the Constitutional experts, Amos Wako and Prof Idd Ramadhani who serves as the Rapporteur.

The public consultations were held in Burundi in January 2020 and in Uganda between April-May 2021, but were postponed due to the containment measures imposed across the region to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

Dr Mathuki briefed the experts on the status of integration, noting that Political Federation is the ultimate goal of the EAC Regional Integration.

"We are making significant strides in the Common Market, Customs Union and Monetary Union and thus accelerating the process to a political federation is critical," he said.

On his part, Justice Odoki noted that the experts are ultimately expected to deliver a report on the proposed model for EAC Political Confederation and draft the EAC Political Confederation Constitution as a transitional model.