Removing restrictions

An optimistic Dr. Mwapachu is of the view that the hitherto high cost of air transport, services, plus the stringent rules in cross-border TV transmission will come down. The rationale is the basic economic principle of supply and demand.

"Removal of restrictions on capital flows should serve as a catalyst for capital market development and the provision of long term and risk capital most needed to spur economic development," adds Dr. Mwapachu as he pitches for "regionalization" of the securities market.

Work permits have also been abolished in Rwanda and Kenya, so with Kenya on the verge of getting a new Constitution, it will be interesting to see how this rule will be applied in the light of dual citizenship.

The EAC secretary general notes: "You cannot realize the full benefits of free movement of professionals under the services sector when labor market policies and laws stand in the way of such freedom."

Already, there are 28 laws set for Kenya's Parliament to put in place the legal framework for the implementation of the protocol.

The challenges too are daunting. For instance, Kenya's Parliament plus its Agriculture Minister, Dr. Sally Kosgei, want the minimum import duty for wheat raised back to the earlier to 35 percent (to protect Kenyan wheat farmers), yet its government agreed with the rest of the member states that the duty be pegged at 10 percent.

Then there are the refugees from Southern Sudan, Northern Uganda and Somalia to deal with. How will the rules of residence apply to them? How will they enjoy free movement? Will they complicate the security situation further?

This is well taken care of in the protocol as individual states are given the right to admit or reject a person who seeks to get into their borders by just citing "public security." The terrorism threat from war-torn Somalia is also very real following July's bombing of a restaurant in Kampala, an act for which Somalia's Al Shabab militia claimed responsibility.

The regional education standards must be brought up to par, given the obvious disparity that exists between the systems in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Tanzania's education standards are normally taken to be somewhat lower because the language of instruction is Kiswahili, but the rise in private universities and well-trained lecturers have helped mitigate this.

The biggest hope for the common market lies in the actualization of the faltering Kenya-Uganda railway concession to help in the movement of goods from the port of Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean Coast to Kampala and further on to Rwanda. There is also the road construction to open up Southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Northern Kenya to trade. A second port is also earmarked to come up in Lamu, still on Kenya's coast.

For all these efforts, it is for the world to the judge come 2015, if the Common Market would have improved.

(Reporting from Kenya)