Power And Institutions:An Analysis On The Instability Of East African Community

The study was conducted for the purposes of examining the power and institutional factors which are affecting the instability of the East African Community (EAC). Specific objectives included assessing the effect of leadership on economic integration, determining the effect of lack of political will on economic integration, evaluating the effect of coalition of the willing on economic integration and assessing the effect of sensitization on economic integration in East Africa Community. It was conducted in Arusha Region, the headquarters of East African Community (EAC) in Tanzania. The units of analysis were East African Community (EAC) secretariat and others stakeholders attending different meetings and forums at the East African Community (EAC) headquarters. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire covering respondents from all the three members Tanzanian, Kenya, and Uganda which it included the two new members which are Rwanda and Burundi. A total of 89 respondents were obtained though stratification based on country of origin and departments, and later randomly selected from each stratum for interviews. Data was analyzed using SPSS. The finding revealed that the instability of East African Community (EAC) is impinged by factors within the East African Community (EAC) structure.Leaders at the East African Community (EAC) were found to have adequate capacity and skills to foster economic integration (51.5%). On the other hand, it was realized that most articles in the Treaty established East African Community (EAC) are not effectively being adhered to. There is no free movement of people, goods and services in East African Community (EAC) (74%). Weaknesses within East African Community (EAC) structure affecting the instability of the organization were found to be un harmonized presidential electoral systems, state leaders not firm enough to follow up on the implementation protocol agreements, and un harmonized policies, lack of trust among East African Community (EAC) people, different economic setups and fear of losing sovereignty in respective states. None tariff barriers and lack of free movement of people, goods and services in relation to customs and immigrations complications, high taxes and difference currency values were found to be the main impediments in trade across East African Community (EAC) borders. Likewise, the creation of the coalition of the willing was found to have negative impact on the economic integration.It is recommended that more sensitization be done at grass root levels in each partner state on economic integration. East African Community (EAC) leadership at state level and secretariat should revise, monitor and evaluate the implementation of agreements geared towards economic integrations at all levels. Likewise, East African Community (EAC) leadership in each member state need strengthen internal sources of funds so as to fully support East African Community (EAC) with own budget. There is also great need to harmonize the country policies and strategies and legal framework in line with East African Community (EAC) strategies.Many reasons have been cited by scholars on the collapse of the first and second East African Community, a wide range of challenges, many of which proved to be stumbling blocks in the previous effort to establish the EAC, still remain.With my finding and including the previous findings, i tried to understand the reason to way the EAC was never stable and what to expect in the current EAC. Focusing on the Economy integration this showed that the process of economic integration in EAC has been inefficient as a result of low effort on the side of the leadership to push at practice.In the eyes of many, the East African Community (EAC) seems to hold ground as one of the most stable unions but that has never been the case. From 2010 to date, the Union has assumed to have a common market that encompasses the free and fair movement of factors of production from one member state to the other but unlike the case, this has never been so...