TANGAZA UNIVERSTY COLLOGE.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSTY OF EAST AFRICA.

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY- PHILOSOPHY.

PHE 352A AFRICAN SOCIAL-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Discussion on some of the socio-political

Lecture; Ochieng’ Ojwang’

“A term paper submitted to Tangaza University as

March, 2021.
Introduction.

Regional Political Unions, this unions being a political and economic agreements that
form closer ties between sovereign countries. established in Africa in need to reduce
tensions between states divided by artificial, mostly colonially imposed boundaries
and that large state could both surmount local crises better than the small one and
more easily pursue a policy of non-alignment; union would therefore promote
political stability. African leaders favoured African unity in principle, without
necessarily agreeing on how closely united they should be and what forms their unity
should take. For instance around my region that is East Africa; East African Common
Services Organisation (EACSO), East African Community (EAC), the Indian Ocean
Commission(IOC), and at regional Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Community of
Sahel –Saharan States (CEN-SAD), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa(COMESA), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Inter-Governmental
Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) just to mention few.
Challenges.

Despite Africa’s unsatisfactory track record in regional integration over the decades,
the case for cooperation and integration has become much stronger in recent years,
due to the fact that the continent is facing a number of major challenges, notably
globalization and the changing global economic and political environments, to which
enhanced cooperation and integration constitute an appropriate response. For instance
there have been challenges facing this groupings are like political instability and
economic nationalism of individual states; differences in ideology, language and
culture, as well as in ruling-party strength; the difficulty of achieving an equitable
distribution of benefits; lack of manpower and foreign exchange, and the heavy
dependence on external aid, even for co-operative projects; poor inter-state
communications; and the fact that member states tend to have economies which, not
being sufficiently diverse, produce goods which are competitive with, rather than
complementary to, each other.

Challenges which include lack of structured engagement with policy makers

Political Conflicts are the positional difference regarding values relevant to societies
in the country such as in Burundi for now and Kenya, that is the challenge to lawyers
from foreign countries to cross border to enter either in Burundi or Kenya for practice
due to fearing that conflicts.

Difference in currency, Kenya may be the largest economy in the East African
Community and provide the most intra-East African Community foreign investment
into its neighbor Tanzania, but so far Kenyan firms cannot take the lawyers along
when expanding across the border. To date Kenyan lawyers are restricted to practice
only in their country where as Kenyan laws have already been amended open the
country to lawyers from Uganda and Tanzania.

Lack of awareness by citizens from the five partner states, immigration, revenue
collection, taxation, port operations and inadequate understanding of the treaty by
government officials from member countries. Some personnel argue that there is need
for citizens to know or to be aware of the implications of the EAC treaty however
some say that wont solve.For instance most Tanzanians lack awareness of the regional
integration process and cannot as such articulate the benefits that can be drawn from
the EAC integration process. Moreover, like many African countries, the country has
inadequate and poor infrastructures that prevent it to tap the opportunities at hand1.

Harmonizing education systems and standards among EAC states is perhaps one of
the biggest challenges the cooperation efforts face. It is a challenge due to difference
of education systems.

Language barrier, the language is the challenge to East African Community because
of the language which used in Kenya is differ from Rwanda and the language which
used in Tanzania is different from Burundi and Rwanda. The language which used in

1
Makame, A. 2012. The East African integration: Achievement and challenges. GREAT Insights, Volume 1, Issue 6.
August 2012. Maastricht: ECDPM.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is English with the common laws while the language
which used in Rwanda and Burundi is French with the Francophone civil law system.

Ethnicity whereby states grapple with their multiple identities. However, in most
instances many people identify with their ethnic groups, whose consequences for
politics in Africa are sometimes deleterious. The potency of ethnicity as a tool for
political mobilization, focusing on the relationship between state and ethnicity. In
Kenya, ethnicity has been the cause of numerous conflicts, most recently the post-
election violence of late 2007 and early 20082.

Poor infrastructures among members states. For instances in Tanzania, like many
African countries, the country has inadequate and poor infrastructures that prevent it
to tap the opportunities at hand. Besides, the people, including within the private
sector, are not very entrepreneurial as they tend to over-rely on the government; this
may be labeled as ‘hangover of ujamaa’ – the socialist political system that was in
place in the country for over three decades after independence. Issues of red tape and
corruption have been in the headlines, especially in important areas such as power
generation and supply.

2
Salih, Mohamed, and John Markakis, eds. Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic
Africa Institute, 1998.
Reference

i. Makame, A. 2012. The East African integration: Achievement and challenges.

ii. Salih, Mohamed, and John Markakis, eds. Ethnicity and the State in Eastern
Africa. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute, 1998.

iii. Sipho Buthelezi, Regional Integration in Africa: Prospects and Challenges for
the 21st Century, Volume 1; 8 sep 2008, university of california.