Debate in the East African Legislative Assembly sitting in Nairobi last week indicated that the question of an East African political federation would remain thorny for sometime.

Opposing a hasty political federation as he contributed to the debate on the Report and Recommendations and Review of Processes and Stages of Integration in the East African Community, by the Assembly's Standing Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution – which the house adopted – Tanzania's Dr Harrison Mwakyembe cautioned the House that political federation (Article 5) was the last item on the agenda in the East African Treaty.

Ms Kate Kamba (Tanzania) initiated the debate and tabled the report, which has recommended a referendum by East Africans on the issue.

Said Dr Mwakyembe: "Re-sequencing means bringing down the whole treaty... it means that we are tampering with a compromise document." The East African Treaty took five painstaking years to negotiate, he reminded the House. 

He told the members that "The draft was a matter of public debate in which many of you participated," adding that the assembly should restrict itself to "keeping the federation fire alive" while making making economic integration the main agenda.

"It is now 40 years after independence and national identities have solidified... Fast tracking of political federation will take us nowhere. Let's proceed according to the treaty and we shall see light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

However, Ugandans had a different view. "We are not here to to keep the fire alive – alive for how long?" wondered Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister and Third Prime Minister Mr James Wapakhabulo. The question of whether East Africa needed a federation had already been answered in the affirmative, he said.

"Uganda's position is that we should set up a mechanism for the federation. The desire is not romanticist but based on what we think is right for East Africa. It is not because we are landlocked," said Mr Wapakhabulo.

He continued: "We should pressurise for a time frame which should show at which point you put the question to the people on how and when it should be done."

Noting that there was no formidable pressure group pushing for a federation, Mr Wapakhabulo urged the MPs to "rise to the occasion. Nothing gets achieved without pressure groups." He urged the assembly to transform itself into one, saying "We are clothed in authority by the law."

However, Dr Mwakyembe and Mr Wapakhabulo seemed to agree that the deliberations of the House were not subject to presidential whims. 

Regarding to Mr Ochieng Mbeo's (Kenya) position that the political federation was on the right track in view of President Daniel arap Moi's message to the MPs that the three East African presidents had set up a committee to work on its time frame, Dr Mwakyembe said: "I would be uncomfortable in a situation where the executive and the legislature were saying the same thing." 

President Moi's message might have been a subtle one to the assembly to handle the federation issue carefully, he said.

To Mr Wapakhabulo, President Moi's sentiments were complimentary and did not preclude the assembly from discussing a political federation. Article 11 of the East African Treaty, he said, allowed the Summit (it comprises the three presidents) to review the progress of the federation, while Article 49 vested similar responsibilities with the Assembly. "We should debate it," he said, adding: "We did not come here to agree on everything and say we are great East Africans."

A federation, Mr Wapakhabulo said, would make East Africa a formidable regional bloc. "Small players have no place in the international business arena. If we start talking, our detractors will start listening," he said.

However, the agreement ended there. Dr Mwakyembe insisted that the Treaty emphasised the facilitation of economic integration but not a political one. "The current arrangement is not a coincidence but a reflection of the hard realities on the ground," he said, adding that "Changing the arrangement means changing the Treaty." 

Kenya's Rose Waruhiu said that the federation would not be based on the Treaty. New legal instruments would have to be discussed, she said. However, she was uncomfortable with the delay on the issue. 

"At the secretariat (Arusha)," said Ms Waruhiu, "we have a macro and microeconomic desk but not a political one." She did not understand why the East African Business Council enjoyed an observer status while political parties did not. "We should move on all fronts concurrently," she said. 

The integration, she added, had to have the input of East Africans. "They want to know the role of governments. Some people were expecting a revival of parastatals such as the defunct East African Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and the dues they never paid them," she said.

Uganda's Gen Mugisha Muntu and Yona Kanyomozi also supported federation, calling upon the Assembly to legislate measures that would speed up the process. 

But Mr Maxwell Shamalla (Kenya) said the federation was the nostalgic obsession of the old guard. People, he said, had to be consulted on the issue.

Ms Mishambi Kawamara (Uganda) wondered how East Africa could compete internationally when the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were "increasing our poverty." She opposed privatisation, saying that the "neo-liberal" move of privatising water had caused the resurgence of river blindness and cholera in South Africa and Guinea. 

East Africa, she cautioned, need not accept policies "that had never worked anywhere. Blind signing of WTO treaties had given leeway to foreign investors, and African governments were unable to regulate their markets.

MS Nanziri Sara Bagalaaliwa (Uganda) urged the Assembly to go beyond traditional law making and legislate on emerging phenomena such as mergers, monopolies. amalgamations, acquisitions, information technology, education and health.