Is Kigali planning to pull out of EA Community?

A few days after President Jakaya Kikwete stated Tanzania’s stand about the East African Community, one of its members, Rwanda is set to join the Economic Community of Central African States (Eccas).

A Rwandan newspaper, New Times, quoted the country’s foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo as saying during a visit to the Republic of Congo: “My Republic of Congo counterpart Basile Ikouebe and I informed our teams that Rwanda will soon be welcomed back in the Community of Central African States.”

Reached for comment, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe said he had not received official information over the decision although he admitted to have read it somewhere.

“I have read it somewhere…..but for the time being I am not in a position to say anything over the decision,” Mr Membe said.

Rwanda will be rejoining six years after it pulled out of the regional bloc, when the country ended its membership of Eccas in 2007 after joining the East African Community (EAC), a five-member bloc. Other partner states in EAC include Burundi (also a member of Eccas), Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Then, Kigali justified the action, saying it was trying to avoid overlapping memberships in several regional community groupings. Eccas is a regional community of 10 central African states, namely; Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome & Principe.

The paper also quoted Rwanda’s ambassador to DRC, Amandin Rugira, saying that Kigali had applied for readmission to Eccas and chances were “very high” that it would be welcomed back during the bloc’s next Heads of State summit. The summit is scheduled to take place early next year in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad.

In his speech on Thursday in Parliament, President Kikwete said Tanzania will never quit the East African Community and will do everything in its powers to ensure it survives and becomes prosperous despite efforts by Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to sideline it.

He told a full House: “We’re in the EAC to stay. We have come from so far. We have sacrificed too much to give up now. We will do everything in our power to make sure the EAC survives and achieves its ultimate goal of political federation.”