Kenyan Vice-President Says Arusha, Tanzania Will Serve As EAC Headquarters

Arusha will continue to serve as the headquarters of the East African Community because that is provided in the treaty to establish the community.

Kenyan Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka last week said ideological and economic differences among the EAC member countries should be ironed out and not allowed to undermine the economic and political integration process.

He made the remarks when he opened the Third East African Health and Scientific Conference attended by ministers and other senior officials from the five partner states-Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

He warned that detractors of the Community were using such differences to plant elements of mistrust. He cited recent reports of some member states challenging the suitability of Arusha as EAC seat.

"We struggled hard to regain our confidence and revive the Community in Arusha", he told hundreds of delegates at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

He added that dictators and maverick leaders like Idi Amin, the former military ruler of Uganda in EA were now rare species in the region.

The late dictator Amin sent his forces to invade and occupy parts of Kagera region in 1978 few years after he had threatened to annex nearly one third of Kenya.

Mr. Musyoka also called for the promotion of Kiswahili as one of the languages of the African Union as once adopted in one of the AU summits.

He said Kiswahili, as medium of communication, could unite the people of EA and in that vein speed up the integration process.

He lauded Tanzania and some radio stations based abroad for spearheading the promotion of Kiswahili, adding that EAC has already established a special body under its secretariat on Kiswahili research.

Tanzanian delegation to the three-day conference comprised four ministers including Dr. Batilda Buriani, the minister of states in the Vice President's Office (Environment).
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Others are the deputy ministers; Dr. Maua Daftari, Communications, Science and Technology; Dr. Asha Kigoda, ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Mohamed Abood, the deputy minister for East African Cooperation.

Recently in Mombasa Mr. Musyoka stressed that there was no controversy on Arusha as EAC headquarters because the Treaty that established the regional body clearly stipulated the northern town as its permanent seat.

Msomaji
Arusha