The East African Customs Union Is A Pipe Dream And Waste Of Tax Payers Money
Today the Sunday newspapers have basically had former powerful Attorney General, Charles Njonjo for breakfast over his remarks about The East African Federation being a pipe dream. Sadly many of the people commenting on the issue have no idea what they are talking about. At least Mr Njonjo is speaking from first hand experience.
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Also published today;
Is Drogba ashamed of being an African?
Quips of the day;
For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.
Maya Angelou quotes (American Poet, b.1928)
It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for Africa.
Prof Wangari Maathai
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It is nice to sit in Nairobi and theorize over a huge Eas African market of over 100 million persons and just dream of how wonderful it would be. But my view is that time will prove Njonjo correct. For starters nobody has tried to research into the subject of why the East African Community collapsed in the first place in 1977, because rather than the issues being resolved, they still loom larger than ever today.
The issues are actually too many to be covered in a single post, but let me cut to the chase and cover the basics. The first problem is that Tanzanians are terrified of an East African Common market where there is free movement of labour. The reasons are obvious. Tanzanians lack skills and the work ethic that gives Kenyans an edge.
I was talking to a Tanzanian businessman of Greek origin (lots of Greeks settled in Tanzania last century) the other day and he told me that he was handling a construction project in Dar-es-salaam and at first they hired a local Tanzanian construction company. As it turned out the work was moving so slowly that he concluded he would be ruined if he let things continue the way they were. He hurriedly hired a well-known Kenyan construction company instead with Kenyan labour (I have no idea how he managed to pull this one off with the strict labor laws in Tanzania) and his building was completed two months ahead of schedule.
The problem with Tanzania is not just the work ethic. English is a major problem because founding father Mwalimu Julius Nyerere insisted that children learn in Kiswahili until High School. Imagine learning all the subjects in Kiswahili until Form One when you suddenly have to master enough English to continue to the next level. The result is predictable. English is a major problem. I once listened in disbelief as a University professor struggled with his English and succeeded in speaking the kind of English that a Standard three pupil in a typical Nairobi school would be deeply ashamed of.
When you consider the fact that the Tanzanian government has attracted huge foreign investments into the country over the last decade or so and many companies are desperate for good English speaking workers, you can imagine what would happen if Kenyans were to flood the Tanzanian job market. As it is already, Kenyans run the Tanzanian economy, but at least the whooping $1,400 work permit requirement somehow slows down the influx of Kenyan labor into this market.
Now common sense will tell you that a common market cannot really work if there is no common market for labour. The free movement of labour is something that Tanzanians can never accept in the next 100 years or so, so why are we wasting taxpayers money pretending that free movement of labour is on the way?
Tanzania is about 20 years behind Kenya and the people are generally not interested in catching up. So the way forward would be to re-constitute an East African common market that excludes Tanzania and includes the more progressive-minded Rwandans and Ugandans and possibly Burundi.
Then there is the other concern over the fact that Kenya is so far ahead of most of her neighbors that initially we will have to sacrifice our own growth and development to help our neighbors catch up. Not very different from what the former West Germany suffered during the unification with former Communist East Germany shortly after the Berlin wall fell in the 90s. Nothing wrong with this except we need to ask ourselves if the timing is right. According to me it is not. There are a number of things that need to be resolved over the next 10 years or so. Maybe we need to target a common market for the year 2020.
One thing we must find a way of encouraging is the traveling of ordinary Kenyans to other countries in the region because this will make many realize that even with our numerous problems, we are truly fortunate and way ahead in many ways. It is instructive that foreigners from all over Africa are not flooding Dar-es-salaam or Kampala but Nairobi.
Nothing to do with this post, but just read on Text TV that three game wardens and four poachers were killed in a skirmish at Tana River near three national reserves.
ReplyDeleteCan you enlighten us on this issue? Hard to find out anything from the northern hemisphere.
Thank you for dropping by. Please check again in about 28 hours, I will try my best to get the information and publish it here for you.
ReplyDelete-Kumkeucha-
The EA confederation and community is a pursuit premised on nostallgia and nothing more. Njonjo is right upto the extent of its practicality but wrong on his hidden reason. The Duke of Kabeteshire was a principal player in the disintegratio of the original EAC for VERY selfish and partisal reasons. He therefore loses the moral authority to mouth any objective criticism.
ReplyDeleteThat said EAC is a mere political project with no sound backing from either research nor economics. Its herd mentality of the belief that more is better and trying measure up to the global trend of fodging econoic blocks. But in these pronouncements lurks an empty shell driven by cheap populist ideologies of yore. Look at the faces behind these push and you would second guess lack of trust.
As for our TZ neighbours true they are far behind if Kenya is made the yardstick. But their fear is also TRUELY FOUNDED given our propensity to export political and economic bad manners.
Give it the TZs, their slowness has a gem in it - politeness and respect. Before you shout at what expense just take leave of this hell for leather mentality and honestly reflect on where our shameless pursuit of wealth at whatever expense is taking us (root of corruption and political rat race).
Give a Kenyans a handshake and he will definitely extend the hospitality past the elbow. The Tanzanians have plenty of idle land which they fear Kenyans will grab at the given a trace of oportunity.
Remedy: The present status must be a wake up call for us to prioritize our economics and politics.
Only fools don't change heir minds and we must respect our neighbours whom we don't have the luxury of choosing besides being geographical accidents. Their laws is the price we have to pay for our arrogance and attitude in looking down at them.
TZ is a sleeping giant and unless we get our priorities right our boastful status wont last long. They have more people sent out to acquire right skills and very soon the effects will be enormous. Being number one is no acheivement but staying number is.
A TZ colleague lammented to me why all BBC Kiswahili jobs went to Kenyans yet their mastery of the language is (truly) below par compared to them. The truth is that the interviews are held in English and Kenyans know better that there is no second time for a first impression so the 'steal' the vacancy during the interview leaving the Tz chaps holding the baby and the water. But not for long.
Wonderful analyses guys, absolutely fabulous. I also support charles njonjo on this particular one(I hate sharing a thought with him). It is a complete waste of time for our leaders to keep talking about an integration that makes no snse to anyone.
ReplyDeleteI am a staunch supporter of a federation but this has to encompass both the political and economic aspects. It is a known fact that we can never have a common political thinking with the tanzanians and Ugandans. If that gate was open, then Kenya will literally sit on and badly bully these neighbours of ours. I agree with Taabu that there is such a personality clash between Kenya and Tanzania for example. This will infiltrate into the political and leadership arena and we will find ourselves spending half of our time shouting at each other. It just cant work. When Chris talks about economic domination , he is not way off the mark. If kenya has completely outshone Nigeria (One indicator of this is the number of students studying abroad---Kenya has more than Nigeria in the US despite their population being five times bigger) in education atainment, how are we supposed to compete in the same labor market with TZ or UG? We will literally take up all the jobs. For every one TZ professor, there are five kenyan professors. University of Nairobi and the JKUAT are now teaching modern day courses that the Ugandans have never herard of. What happens when we integrate? We will control some major sectors of the economy and then have to go through the sometimes controversial affirmative action. Basically this idea is practically unworkable. It is an idea which should be dropped like a bad habbit.
About the disintegration in 1977, this was more down to power games than anything else. Nyerere felt he was far more knowledgeable than kenyatta, Idd Amin and later obote. He also considered himself righteous and that is why he said he can never share a table with idd Amin before mobilising his ouster from power. He also felt Kenyatta was overseeing the affairs of a country that had no morals, That is why he kept reminding people of our man eat man society. He just felt that he was better than everybody else. Back to the personslity clashes. If u look at Museveni vs Kibaki today, do u expect them to reason the same? While Kibaki is an intelligent,well schooled and democratic leader, Museveni is the opposite of that. They cant just push in the same direction. Kikwete is a diplomat while museveni is a crude operator. I know it has nothing to do with these guys, but my point is that we are bound to have cultural background clashes between leaders from these three countries. They will always belong in different worlds.
Kenya should just follow the Rwanda path and forget all this crap about a working relationship with the likes of TZ and UG. Rwanda and Botswana are two countries who have absolutely no time for these high profile meaningless talks. Let's develop ourselves and forget what our neighbour is doing. When we are developed we look back and see if any of these neighbours shares our thinking and is working towars the same goal with us, then we can sign trade treaties with such countries.
What is posted here is mere stereotyping and blowing of self-trumpets. All the talk is as if Tanzania is one human being and Kenya is yet another. These are countries and there are both strong and weak personalities on every side. Arguments such as Nyerere thought of himself as better than others, this is one's own thinking, and it could be right or wrong, because we never heard Nyerere proclaiming to take himself as better than others. You should understand stand Kenya's apparently "better" position is all due to its colonial political background. And if it were not for political motive, no Tanzanian would wish to join hands with such arrogant fellows.
ReplyDeleteI would think these Kenyan fellows who have aired their views on this blog represent the real "tribalistic, selfish and egoist" nature of the Kenyans (if I should steretype you as well). The following are facts that only the less-informed can deny:
ReplyDelete1. That Nyerere was more intelligent than the other two fellows, only those who did not know the guys would dispute that. This is true in East Africa and elsewhere in the world (read his writings, his power both in Africa and elsewhere in the world).
2. That Kenyans are divided on the basis of their ethnic groupings and national solidarity becomes subsidiary, only those who do not abide the truth would buy such thinking.
3. That Tanzanians are happier the way they are, and not moved by selfishness as shown by these Kenyan fellows is obvious.
4. This guy who was watching a university professor stuggling cannot make the distinction between language and what the professor was delivering (content). This is a sign of ignorance and impaired thinking. It also exposes his level of ignorance to the rest of the wolrd. It is better to keep quiet and let people think you are stupi than to speak out and let people know you are stupid...
5. For sure Tanzanians would not like to join Kenyans, not because of the colonial language that the Kenyans boast with (i.e. English), but because Kenyans are not inherently peaciful people. The English that they claim to speak well, most of it is essentially partly correct. Most of the English they speak is horribly in shambles.
Why don't you fellows use your militant behaviour to force (as I can also stereotype you) your government not to drag you into the uncalled-for community? I hope you have enough muscles to wield such a move.
Kenyans please get over yourselves. what's with all the arrogance and chest-beating in trying to put TZ down by claiming that we're 20 yrs behind you - in terms of what - gigantic potholes on the roads, armed robberies or gigantic slum hellholes - mathare and kibera being 2 such examples? There's also a recurring sentiment in several posts here that somehow kenyans are better educated than TZ'ians because they speak better English. This just shows how mentally enslaved some of you really are. Are the British better educated than the French or the Japanese because English happens to be their mother tongue? Who made one's English-speaking abilities the yardstick here of how good of an education that one possesses? Even if it were, how many Kenyans speak the "Queens" English - i.e. complete, contextual, cogent and coherent sentences, always using the appropriate vocab and without mangling or shrubbing? Don't bet the farm on a number higher than 20 percent. Nyerere had that "azma" or vision thing as far as Kiswahili was concerned. Everything in T.Z. is based on the national language of Swahili and why not? We are Africans in Africa, so why not revel in and deepen our understanding of our own authentic languages? Swahili is spoken from Mozambique all the way to the DRC and Somalia, so we're not talking about some rinky-dink second-rate language here. Then there was the anecdote in one of the posts about the "Greek-Tanzanian" who needed workers who could speak english in order to finish his project (so he went on to hire kenyans). Please - no "TZ'ian" worth the name could think this way or would struggle to communicate with their fellow citizens in kiswahili. The fact that he was able to secure kenyan labor - probably illegal at that - is very telling and speaks to the fact that kenyans are flocking to T.Z. in search of everyday-jobs that they can't find at home. How is this any different from Zimbabweans flocking to Botswana or S.A.for example? If the Kenyan economy were so strong the traffic would be flowing in the other direction, my friends, immigration officials be damned. TZ'ians were long ago put off of with this EAF idea, partly because of the arrogance of some of our neighbors. If we shared a border with the U.S. or Japan or China or Dubai, perhaps those countries could rationalize harboring some of those feelings of arrogance vis a vis their TZ neighbors when our relative economic situations were assessed. The fact that we have to witness this behavior from some Kenyans - a country just as poor in many respects and with far fewer natural resources than us is not only sad, but strangely laughable. Simply wishing Kenya were 20 yrs ahead of Tanzania doesn't make it so, but heck, it's a free world so if you want to visit fantasy land every now and then - go right ahead. Back in the real world, most people with a keen interest in the goings-on of the region and with half a brain have already realized that E. Africa's "sleeping giant" isn't sleeping anymore.
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