Public support

On the surface it appears the integration has the support of the people. A 2010 report by the EAC Secretariat showed that seven out of 10 people in each of the five member countries are aware of the importance of the EAC. In fact, all the countries showed a support rate of between 66 percent (Tanzania) and 96.5 percent (Rwanda) for integration.

Further, the report shows that support for a political federation is also high, with 69.9 percent in Kenya, 74.4 in Tanzania, 77.6 in Uganda, 91.2 in Rwanda and 63 in Burundi.

"My worry is that a premature adoption of the EAC project will not only fail but will poison interregional relations for an unnecessarily long time. EAC lobby should start by presenting us with some reasonable plans," said Ayekuze.

The EAC should set aside the single currency and the political federation projects, and spend the next decade or more integrating on an economic and social basis until the union comes naturally, she said.

Dr. Apuuli Kasaija, a political science lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda, thinks it would be wrong to create a political alliance between states that have yet to create favorable democracies themselves.

"There are still very serious concerns among the partner states, including governance, ethnicity, and land. Let those stages that we have achieved be made to function properly before we move into new ones," said Kasaija.

Does this mean the bloc repeating the same mistakes that caused its collapse in 1977? Beatrice Kiraso, Deputy Secretary General for EAC's political arm, argued the current treaty corrects earlier errors. "The current EAC Treaty, unlike the 1967 one, provides for a Political Federation as the final stage of EAC integration," she said, before throwing in a caveat. "It is important to understand that attainment of the EAC Political Federation is a process as opposed to being an event. This calls for stronger policy platforms that go beyond cooperation in the conduct of security and foreign policy matters and a transformation of regional policies."

"The socio-economic benefits, as well as security ones, to the region are many if implementation can be sincere," says Professor Munene. Could EAC take off as a regional trading and political alliance? Only time will tell.

Milestones in the EAC

-1999: EAC reviving after 22 years of death

-March 2004: Customs Union agreed by the members

-January 2005: Launch of the Customs Union

-July 2007: Bloc agreeing to include Rwanda and Burundi

-July 2009: Rwanda and Burundi being officially admitted to the EAC

-July 2010: Bloc launching the Common Market Protocol

-2012: EAC targeting to launch a single currency

-2015: EAC projects to have a single political authority