Ministry launches EAC integration communication policy

[louie]

By George Omondi

Posted Wednesday, February 24 2010 at 00:00

The Ministry of East African Community has designed a communication policy to help the ordinary citizens to understand the integration process and the related benefits.

The policy which seeks to interpret legal instruments of the EAC was launched in Nairobi on Tuesday with a promise to reach every segment of the country with information on opportunities and challenges at every stage.

It comes amid rising concerns that many Kenyans are missing the available opportunities to expand their horizons because of low level of awareness.

From next week, the ministry said it will be using mass media, professional forums, internet and educational platforms to reach out to citizens with simplified information about the integration.

“We believe that with proper information, everyone including small scale traders will benefit from the EAC integration process,” said the EAC minister Amason Kingi

The EAC heads of state Summit in Arusha to endorse the region’s common market protocol in November had directed the region’s council of ministers to develop national programme to sensitise citizens on the process, particularly on the value of custom union and common market.

In January this year, the EAC evolved into a fully fledged custom union – a stage of the integration process that allow Kenyan goods to trade in the region without attracting tariff charges.

Traders on the ground, however, say only a few people understand the changes.

“To us, a fully fledged custom union is a utopia that only makes sense to top government officials sitting in offices because here on the ground, officials are still asking for charges even on grains and harassment of traders by border authorities is still very common,” says Mr Alfred Achar, a clearing and forwarding agent at Busia border post.

At Malaba county council, officials said the custom union was not yet fully operational because truck drivers who apparently lack the information still prefer to do business within limited time despite the recent directive to keep the border points working 24 hours.

According to the council’s revenue officer, Mr Joseph Okole, drivers still park their trucks every evening and resume the clearance process the following day, denying the local authority the opportunity to collect more revenue.

On Tuesday, EAC PS David Nalo echoed these sentiments when he acknowledged that majority of east Africans were not aware of the region’s integration process.

“Information gap still exists between Arusha national capitals on the one hand and between national capitals and citizenry on the other,” said Mr Nalo.

The region intends to launch a common market by July this year — a stage of the integration process that will open the national borders for free movement of people as well as all factors of production across the region.

Common market
When the Business Daily visited the national border points a few days ago, border officials said most citizens cannot distinguish between the fully fledged custom union with common market, demanding to be allowed into the neighbouring states without travel documents.

The success of the ministry’s communication policy will be gauged by how best it succeeds in interpreting several annexes in the custom union and common market protocols that restrict movement of goods and services.

The custom union protocol only allows goods that are either wholly manufactured from locally available raw materials or those with value addition component of up to 35 per cent to move freely without attracting tariffs.

Kenyan companies such as General Motors, Nestle and KenolKobil have in recent times faulted the custom union’s rules of origin saying absence of its clear method of calculating the 35 per cent cap has turned it into a non-tariff barrier.

On the other hand, the annexes in the common market protocol place restrictions on movement of labour, capital as well as access to land .

For instance, partner states can only accept labour from member states if they seek jobs in the sectors that the country has accepted to liberalise.

The annexes allow other countries in the region to restrict capital movement up to 2015 while rights to establishment and land are subservient to national laws.

Mr Kingi appointed a legal taskforce made up of government and private sector players, and headed by justice stewards Madzayo, to audit all the provisions of the common market protocol and its annexes and make recommendation on the kind of the reforms required before its domestication

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