Uhuru Kenyatta.
The Chairperson of the East African Community’s Heads of State Summit, President Uhuru Kenyatta has stated that one the main objective of the EAC was to delete national boundaries created by white rulers during colonial era.
“It is high time all Africa become border-less and we at East Africa we are pioneering the process because when you come to think of it, it was the white men who drew these borderlines without even consulting our forefathers,” pointed out President Kenyatta while addressing thousands of Namanga residents at the border here.
He praised the border residents at both sides of Namanga for ignoring the walls created by foreigners by trading among themselves and inter-marrying.
“Whenever you see a border separating two countries it should remind you of the time when foreigners were scrambling for Africa and plundering the continent’s resources at the expense of our people,” Kenyatta maintained.
“It is high time all Africa become border-less and we at East Africa we are pioneering the process because when you come to think of it, it was the white men who drew these borderlines without even consulting our forefathers,” pointed out President Kenyatta while addressing thousands of Namanga residents at the border here.
He praised the border residents at both sides of Namanga for ignoring the walls created by foreigners by trading among themselves and inter-marrying.
“Whenever you see a border separating two countries it should remind you of the time when foreigners were scrambling for Africa and plundering the continent’s resources at the expense of our people,” Kenyatta maintained.
The Kenyan Head of State later addressed members of staff at the East African Community Headquarters in Arusha where he reinforced his stance of a borderless state by urging Tanzanian authorities to speed up the National ID cards to their citizens.
“Because we want to abolish passports usage within our East African States so that our people can travel freely with just their national identifications,” Kenyatta explained.
He told the EAC employees that he experienced something very important at Namanga border where cattle, goats and sheep grazed freely across the border without caring whether the grass was in Kenya or Tanzania.
“Surely we can do better than cows, if they don’t let boundaries hinder them from eating why should our people be constrained by the same?” he asked.
According to Kenyatta, East African countries were not supposed to be competing against each other but needed to consolidate joint efforts so that they can compete with the rest of the world as a single bloc.
Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania, the five countries that form the EAC have a joint population of 130 million and counting, still a minimal figure lower than the population of say Nigeri which is just a single country with people as many as 200 million.
The Secretary General of the EAC Dr Richard Sezibera said there should be deliberate efforts to ensure that the community was financed internally instead of relying on funds from donors.
Dr Sezibera pointed out that US $ 78.8 million, out of the nearly US $ 116 million fiscal year budget for the secretariat came from foreign sources while the member states contributed just US $ 37 million.
“Because we want to abolish passports usage within our East African States so that our people can travel freely with just their national identifications,” Kenyatta explained.
He told the EAC employees that he experienced something very important at Namanga border where cattle, goats and sheep grazed freely across the border without caring whether the grass was in Kenya or Tanzania.
“Surely we can do better than cows, if they don’t let boundaries hinder them from eating why should our people be constrained by the same?” he asked.
According to Kenyatta, East African countries were not supposed to be competing against each other but needed to consolidate joint efforts so that they can compete with the rest of the world as a single bloc.
Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania, the five countries that form the EAC have a joint population of 130 million and counting, still a minimal figure lower than the population of say Nigeri which is just a single country with people as many as 200 million.
The Secretary General of the EAC Dr Richard Sezibera said there should be deliberate efforts to ensure that the community was financed internally instead of relying on funds from donors.
Dr Sezibera pointed out that US $ 78.8 million, out of the nearly US $ 116 million fiscal year budget for the secretariat came from foreign sources while the member states contributed just US $ 37 million.
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