It’s time to awaken the sleeping East African giant on trade

One November afternoon in 1999, three presidents: Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, met in Arusha to sign the Treaty for the establishment of the East African Community (EAC), reviving a partnership that had collapsed in 1977 amid mistrust and economic rivalry. When it came into force on 7th July 2000, under the bold motto One People, One Destiny, it signalled a renewed era of regional cooperation, promising freer movement of goods, services, and opportunities across borders; a second chance that business owners, traders, and citizens hoped would finally turn proximity into prosperity.

The symbolism was powerful in both big and small ways. A Nairobi manufacturer should trade with a partner in Dar es Salaam as easily as with one in Machakos. A farmer in Dodoma should sell to Kampala without feeling like they were crossing a foreign market. And then there was the blue passport. Gone were the days of each country’s national passport; the dark blue Kenyan, green Tanzanian, maroon Ugandan. Instead came the sky-blue East African Community passport, embossed in gold, with the holder’s country beneath. It meant visa-free travel across partner states, easier business trips, and stays of up to 90 days without paperwork. The region was finally walking the talk.

It is worth noting that regional integration follows deliberate, ambitious steps; from preferential trade area to free trade area, to customs union, to common market, to monetary union, and ultimately to political federation. The EAC has come further than most African blocs. Today, on paper, we are a common market. In reality, that seamless trade remains elusive.

The dream matters because there is power in size and solidarity. The EAC is the largest single market for its members. For manufacturers, it promises larger demand, greater competitiveness, shared stability, and collective bargaining power globally.

Yet, we have fallen far short of that potential. Intra-EAC trade today stands at a mere 14%. When we hold this up against other regional trading blocs such as the European Union, where internal trade flows reach around 69%, the gap is impossible to ignore. Instead of a seamless market living up to the promise of One People, One Destiny, we have a patchwork of competing silos, where non-tariff barriers and protectionist policies chip away at our shared prosperity.

This is especially troubling in today’s volatile global trade environment. From shifting geopolitical alliances to rising tariffs and supply chain disruptions, the message is clear: we must diversify our markets to sustain growth. Strengthening sourcing within the EAC offers a strategic shield against unpredictable global shifts, ensuring greater resilience and stability for our industries.

According to the EAC Secretariat, partner states have lost about 30% of potential trade to these barriers. Simply put, third-party countries benefit more than the EAC members, enjoying over 60% of regional trade when petroleum imports are excluded.

With this perspective in mind, consider the recent measures by the United Republic of Tanzania. In the 2025/2026 Finance Act, through the Excise (Management and Tariff) Act Cap 147, the Import Control Act Cap 276, and the Exports Tax Act Cap 196, Tanzania introduced restrictions affecting about 80 products across steel, dairy, meat, sausages, food, automotive, and hygiene sectors. These measures, which apply to goods originating from EAC countries including Kenya, impact products that account for approximately 26% of Kenya’s total transfers to Tanzania.

This is not an isolated incident. In the past, several EAC member states including Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda; have taken protectionist steps that shut out fellow partner states from their markets. Tanzania’s latest actions echo these earlier moves, with unilateral measures enacted without regional consensus, threatening to deepen trade fragmentation and undermine the very purpose of our common market.

Imagine the impact on a steel manufacturer who has spent years building a customer base in Dar es Salaam, only to find their products suddenly more expensive at the border than steel imported from Asia. Or a Tanzanian dairy processor that depends on Kenyan-made packaging machinery but now faces delays and higher costs due to retaliatory measures. These barriers frustrate businesses, raise consumer costs, limit product choice, and stifle job creation. While protectionist policies may offer short-term relief to local industries, they ultimately erode trust, invite retaliation, and weaken the region’s global competitiveness.

This also goes against the very spirit and the letter of our agreement. Article 75(6) of the EAC Treaty and Article 15 of the EAC Common Market Protocol commit partner states to refrain from laws or administrative measures that directly or indirectly discriminate against like products from other partner states. The WTO’s National Treatment principle says the same: once a product has crossed into your market, it should be treated no differently than if it was made locally.

The EAC has the institutional tools to fix this. The Summit of Heads of State, our highest decision-making body, can set the tone for compliance. Ministerial and technical meetings can iron out specific disputes. But this requires political will: partner states must give EAC laws primacy over national laws in matters of regional trade. Furthermore, it is of necessity that all reported non-tariff and technical barriers be addressed within clear, time-bound frameworks. Member states must also embrace the understanding that “domestic” or “local” should refer to products made within the East African Community as a whole, not just those produced within a single country.

With new members such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia, the EAC market now spans over 300 million people and boasts a combined GDP of approximately US$312.9 billion; a vast economic force if we choose to harness it.

Sometimes the reminder of what is possible, comes from unexpected places. Last week, at Kasarani Stadium during the African Nations Championship (CHAN), as Kenya triumphed over Angola, thousands of Kenyan fans joyfully sang along to Bongo Flava; a vibrant, soulful Tanzanian sound that masterfully fuses hip-hop, R&B, and traditional rhythms. In that moment, the music transcended borders and belonged to every one of us. That is the East Africa we should build: a community sharing markets as freely as melodies, where trust flows like music in a stadium, and opportunity is not blocked by artificial borders.