eac

jk akiwa na marais yoweri museveni wa uganda, mwai kibaki wa kenya, paul kagame wa rwanda na pierre nkurunzinza wa burundi mara baaada ya mkutano wa wakuu wa jumuiya ya afrika mashariki jijini kampala majuzi ambapo rwanda na burundi zilipokelewa rasmi kama wananchama wapya wa jumuiya hiyo.

SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA, AT THE 5TH EXTRA-ORDINARY SUMMIT OF THE EAC HEADS OF STATE, SERENA HOTEL, KAMPALA, 18TH JUNE, 2007


Your Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda and Chairman of the EAC Summit ;

Your Excellency Mwai Kibaki, President of the Republic of Kenya ;

Your Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda ;

Your Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi ;

Honourable Ministers;

Distinguished Officials from Partner States;

Members of the Diplomatic Corps;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Excellencies;

Let me begin by saying how pleasant and inspiring it is to be in this beautiful city of Kampala . I thank President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the Government and People of the Republic of Uganda for the warmth of reception and hospitality. We are also grateful for the excellent arrangements made for our meeting. All this is typical of you Mr. President and the people of Uganda . We would have been surprised if there was anything less.

Excellencies;
The choice of Kampala as venue for this Extraordinary Summit could not have been more propitious. For I note with admiration that the city is already well set to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) later this year.
In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to commend and congratulate our Ugandan brothers and sisters for the remarkable work done in preparation for this important meeting. We wish you every success in hosting the meeting. The successful convocation of CHOGM would be a great honour not only to Uganda but also to all East African countries and the Great Lakes Region. All of us therefore, have vested interest in its success.

Excellencies;
Allow me also to use this occasion to pay special tribute to the outgoing Chairman of the Summit , His Excellency Mwai Kibaki , President of the Republic of Kenya . President Kibaki steered the affairs of our Community so well and gave a new push to our integration efforts. The admission of Rwanda and Burundi into the Community will in particular be remembered as one of the major achievements attained under his able stewardship.
In the same vein, I wish to congratulate our brother, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for assuming the Chairmanship of our regional organisation. President Museveni brings to the Chair an accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience. I have no doubt in my mind that he will take the Community to new and loftier heights in the coming weeks and months.

Excellencies;
I note with satisfaction the work of the Council of Ministers and the Secretariat in preparation for this 5th Extraordinary Summit and in carrying out the work of the Community as a whole. Through the concerted efforts of Council and Secretariat, the Community has made tremendous progress. The integration process is generally progressing well to the satisfaction of all of us.
I am particularly, happy with the progress made so far in the preparation for the establishment of the Appellate Division of the East African Court of Justice which is being carried out in accordance with the decision taken by the 8th Summit on 30th November, 2006.
It is also gratifying to note that the consultative process for gathering views on fast-tracking the East African Political Federation is progressing well in the three Partner States. People are freely expressing their views as is typical of the democratic culture that is taking deep roots in East Africa .. This speaks volumes about the maturity of democracy in our countries.



Excellencies;
At the 8th Summit in Arusha last November, we made a bold and an historic decision of welcoming the Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi as new members of our Community. Today we have witnessed the consummation of the process started then when a while ago the two countries sealed their membership by signing Treaties of Accession. By so doing both countries have now fully become family members of the East African Community with full and equal rights, obligations and privileges.
I wish to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Government and People of Tanzania, to heartily congratulate the Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi for becoming full-fledged members of the East African Community. Tanzania looks forward to working closely with both countries in promoting greater and deeper integration in our region.
I also want to pay special tribute to our brothers, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi for the major leap forward they have made by steering their countries to full membership. It’s a landmark achievement for Rwandan and Burundi diplomacy. We thank and commend you for your commitment and far-sightedness.
Indeed, there are better prospects in a bigger niche’ especially the East African Community which in many ways is very much tied to the economic fortunes of your great nations and peoples. We welcome both of you to the Summit Club of the East African Community. We assure you of Tanzania ’s continued support and cooperation.

Excellencies;
The expanded membership of the Community gives us reason to hope and celebrate. It affords us a good opportunity to jointly pool our abundant resources and strength to overcome our backwardness and underdevelopment. It accords us the possibilities for speedier implementation of regional projects and programmes particularly those which have a direct bearing on poverty eradication and improving the living conditions of our people. In this connection, I wish to remind ourselves of the urgent need to accelerate the implementation of the East African Community Development Strategy (2006 – 2010). I would like to propose that the strategy should now be revisited to accommodate the new realities due to expanded membership.
At the same time we should take full advantage of the window created by expanded membership to scale-up intra-regional trade. For this reason infrastructure development has to remain a top agenda of the Community. Due regard therefore needs to be given to the acceleration of the implementation of the East African Road Network and the East African Power Master Plan. The benefits for promoting growth and trade to be engendered by these infrastructural projects and programmes need no emphasis or qualification.
It is integrated infrastructure that forms the firm basis for an integrated regional market. We have come together into this regional setting in order to utilize fully the internal regional market by taking advantage of the economies of scale.

Excellencies;
Allow me also to use this opportunity to welcome the launching in Kisumu early last week of the East African Community Lake Victoria Basin Commission. I congratulate and thank President Mwai Kibaki and the Government of Kenya for a very befitting ceremony to mark the occasion. The launching of the Commission clearly demonstrates our collective resolve to solve common problems through a common strategy. It adds up to the long list of the many great achievements made by the Community in its short life.
The Lake Victoria Basin Commission is an important mechanism for assisting us in dealing with environmental problems in the Lake Victoria area. However, as a region we still face a number of other serious environmental problems with negative impact on our societies and economies. The problems require a coordinated multi-pronged approach to deal with. Individually our countries may not do much to solve the problems but collectively we have the capacity to overcome them. The earlier we do so, the better for our countries and peoples. So let us do it for the sake of the future generations in our nations.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen;
I thank you for your kind attention.