Accession of Somalia to the East Africa Community
Accession of Somalia to the East Africa Community
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization founded in 1999. It has proved to be successful in improving the economic growth of its member states; it also supports the security of individual member states and the stability of the entire region. The Community Consists of Eight (8) Partner States: The Republic of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of South Sudan, the Republic of Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and on 24th November 2023, the Federal Republic of Somalia was admitted to the EAC, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC was meant as the reactivation and expansion of an earlier organization founded in 1967 by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The founding treaty of the Community was signed on November 30, 1999, and entered into force on July 7, 2000, after ratification by the three founding countries, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The main goal of the organization is to strive to build a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable, and politically united East Africa. Currently, the EAC has three official languages English, Kiswahili and French. The Community promotes Four pillars of integration and these includes as follows: –
- The Protocol on the creation of a Customs Union was signed in 2004, the customs union entered into force for a transitional period in 2005, fully in force since 2010
- The Protocol on the creation of a Common Market was signed in 2009 and entered into force in 2010;
- The East Africa Monetary Union (EAMU) Protocol was adopted on 30th November 2013; all Partner States have ratified the EAMU Protocol, except Somalia;
- A Political Federation is the ultimate goal of East African Community (EAC) integration, on 20th May, 2017, the EAC Heads of State adopted the Political Confederationas a transitional model of the East African Political Federation.
A SUMMARY OF THE SOMALIA’S ACCESSION TO THE BLOC
- Somalia has been a candidate for membership in the East African Community for 13 years between 2011-2023. No any other member of the trade bloc has ever made the same kind of effort toward such regional integration.
- On 17th April-2011, by then the President of Somalia, H.E Sharif Shiekh Ahmed, wrote to the then EAC Chairperson, president of Tanzania, H.E Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, expressing his country’s wish to be a member of the bloc
- On 6th March 2012, in a letter to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, who served as the East African Community (EAC) chair, the Republic of Somalia has once again formally requested admittance to the Community. Ambassador Abdi Hakim Ali Yasin, the special envoy of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) President Sheikh Shariff, delivered the letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula.
- In 2019, then President Mohamed Farmaajo reapplied alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo. The bloc decided to begin admitting Kinshasa but delayed a decision on Mogadishu, pending verification by a team of experts to determine Somalia’s readiness.
- On 27th day of February, 2021, during 21st Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State noted that the verification exercise for the admission of the Federal Republic of Somalia into the East African Community had not been undertaken and directed the Council to follow-up on the exercise. At this juncture, Somalia’s President, H.E. Hassan S. Mohamud, attended the 21st Ordinary Summit to renew interest in joining the EAC.
- On 22nd July 2022, in the course of 22nd Ordinary Meeting, the Summit of the EAC Heads of State considered the application by the Federal Republic of Somalia to join the Community and directed the EAC Council of Ministers to expeditiously undertake a Verification Mission in accordance with the EAC procedure for admission of new members and report to the 23rd Ordinary Meeting of the Summit. The Government of Somalia appointed the presidential envoy to the East African Community as Abdisalam Hadliye Omar also to expedite verification process in August 2022.
- On 25th January up-to 3rd February 2023, a team of experts from East Africa Community officially launched the verification mission to assess Somalia’s readiness to join the regional bloc who came into Mogadishu-Capital of Somalia. The objective of the verification team comprising of experts from the EAC Partner States was to establish the country’s level of conformity with the criteria for admitting foreign countries as provided in the Treaty for the establishment of the EAC including inter alia: the institutional frameworks in place, legal frameworks, policies, strategies, projects and programmes, areas of cooperation with other EAC partner states and expectations from membership. It also includes infrastructure, energy, education, science, peace and security as well as international cooperation.
- During the five-day meeting from 19th– 23rd February, 2023: the 43rd Ordinary session of the East Africa Community (EAC) Council of Minister considered the Report of the Verification Mission on the Admission of the Federal Republic of Somalia into the EAC.
- The nine-day negotiations were successfully conducted from 22nd to 30 August, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya, which brought together experts from the seven (7) EAC Partner States, the EAC Secretariat, East African Legislative Assembly and East African Court of Justice, and their counterparts from the Federal Republic of Somalia, with Mogadishu reaffirming willingness to be part of the bloc. Following the negotiations, the EAC Council of Ministers recommended to the Summit to consider admitting FGS into the Community in accordance with Article 3 of the Treaty.
Hon. Dr. Peter Mutuku Mathuki and H.E President of Somalia, Hassan S. Mohamud
- On 24 August, 2022 the Summit of EAC Heads of State at their 23rd Extra-Ordinary Meeting, admitted FGS into the EAC following the recommendation by the EAC Council of Ministers. The Chairperson of the Summit and President of Burundi, H.E Evariste Ndayishimiye, informed the meeting that FGS had met all the set criteria for admission as provided for in the Treaty, after the lengthy closed-door meeting which lasted more than five hours.
Finally, the Federal Republic of Somalia now has up to May, 2024 to undertake internal and constitutional processes to ratify the Treaty and deposit the instruments of ratification with the Secretary General. Furthermore, the Heads of State directed the Council of Ministers to develop a roadmap for the integration of Somalia into the Community and report progress to the next meeting of the Summit.
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