EAC Secretariat, ESAMI rope heads of public service in regional integration process

FRIDAY March 14, 2025

By The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania

The East African Community Secretariat and the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI) have jointly created a forum to tap into integration inputs from heads of public service.

As for now, heads of public service do not directly appear in the organogram of the Africa’s fastest integrating bloc.

The East African Community (EAC) though has made commendable achievements in trade facilitation, infrastructure, and policy harmonisation, the pace of implementation of protocols and regional decisions falls short of aspirations of the East Africans.

Dubbed Strategic Dialogue for Heads of Public Service and Ministers responsible for EAC Affairs, the platform brings together chief secretaries, permanent secretaries, ministers, and academia.

The Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Ms Beatrice Askul, welcomed the maiden two-day forum held in Arusha, Tanzania, on Thursday March 13, 2025, saying it was timely and essential in driving the integration agenda, given the roles the heads of public service play.

Heads of public service are the anchors between policy formulation and implementation, guardians of institutional memories and stewards of public resources within the EAC partner states.

Ms Askul, who doubles as Kenya’s EAC and Regional Development Cabinet Secretary, said their strategic guidance and unwavering commitment was an essential catalyst for translating regional commitments into tangible outcome that benefited the citizens.

“The full potential of integration agenda remains untapped, largely due to implementation challenges at national level,” observed Ms Askul, stressing:

“The strength of the EAC lies not only on political goodwill, but fundamentally on the robust implementation of agreements through respective public service institutions.”

She said Many EAC integration initiatives transcending ministerial boundaries and requiring coordinated action across multiple government departments, leadership of the heads of public service was crucial in breaking down implementation challenges within national administration and fostering a whole of government approach to regional integration.

The strength of the EAC lies not only on political goodwill, but fundamentally on the robust implementation of agreements through respective public service institutions,” the Chairperson of the East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers, Ms Beatrice Askul.

Heads of public service’s oversight could help to identify bottlenecks, address implementation challenges, and hold relevant agencies accountable for their regional obligation.

Ms Lucy Nakyobe, the Uganda’s Head of Public Service, said heads of public service were strategic in ensuring whatever was decided was implemented.

A lot had been going on in the integration, but the process still had a long way to go, said Ms Nakyobe, as she concurred with Ms Askul that bringing heads of public service on board would play a key role in reaching the destination.

“As heads of public service, we form the chain between the civil service and the executive. We provide essential link governments need for ensuring whatever is decided in cabinet is implemented,” she explained.

Ms Nakyobe observed that most of the EAC Treaty agreements as well as those of the African continent had remained on paper.

African states were selfish, as they spent most of the time on protecting sovereignty at the expense of factors that united them.

She was optimistic the forum would come up with resolutions for the integration to be streamlined with national polices, fully budgeted, furnished with performance metrics and tracked.

“I hope we will put them into practice,” she said, pledging: “We as heads of public service, shall urge our cabinets and our heads of state to follow what we have agreed on. I call on all of us here to walk the talk.”

The Kenya’s Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, Mr Felix Koskei, said the EAC integration process begged more questions than answers to him.

“So, our major assignment here is to listen the reason we have been invited. If we have done anything wrong or if there is a gap EAC feels we need to close so that we see efficiency and hastened integration,” he said.

He enumerated some of the areas he was interested in knowing including weather proposals partner states made to the EAC were consultative enough as well as on the waning trust among partner states in implementing resolutions of the Council of Ministers and the Summit.

Other areas are weather sanctions were in place to enforce implementation of the resolutions, and mechanism for tracking those who intentionally failed to implement resolutions passed through all the EAC organs.

“On trade, sometimes we find ourselves as countries enter into negotiations with EPA, AGOA, Korean and even UAE. How do we bring these agreements together so that our partner states can benefit,” queried the Cabinet Minister, adding:

“On financing of the EAC, what do we do to redouble contributions of partner states to fast-track the integration? How as heads of public service can we intervene?”

Extending her gratitude to ESAMI and GIZ for supporting the dialogue, the EAC Secretary General, Ms Veronica Nduva, cautioned over the EAC partner states embracing nationalistic policies saying they compromise the integration process.

The ESAMI Director General, Dr Peter Kiuluku, said, in turn, that he had carried out research for 20 years in four EAC partner states that could assist in taking the integration process to the next level, highlighting the need for demolishing borders in the regionΩ