THE ADMISSION OF SOUTH SUDAN INTO THE EAST AFRICA COMMUNITY AND THE IMPLICATION FOR THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD GOVERNANCE AND THE RULE OF LAW

Abstract

Generally, this study is about the admission of South Sudan into the East Africa community and the implication for the principles of good governance and the rule of law. Consequently, it analyzed the performance of regional organizations against the set principles, examined the extent to which South-Sudan fulfilled the EAC criterion of admission into the regional grouping and evaluated the implications of regional grouping violating their own principles and values for the future of regional integration in Africa. The study also set out two hypotheses namely that the admission of new member states into EAC is largely a function of other factors beyond rule of law and good governance and secondly that the observation of admission guidelines to EAC has implication on the regional development. The study, which depended on primary and secondary data with intermediate use of maps and tables including thematic approach to present the information, was situated within the Joseph Nye Soft power theory. From the findings, it was revealed that the performance of regional organizations to set principals that govern international organizations was poor. EAC regional organization did not adhere to the rules of admission when admitting South Sudan into the regional bloc. South Sudan still faces many challenges in terms of observing the rule of law, governance and democracy. The findings led to a conclusion that South Sudan did not fulfill the EAC criterion of admission into the regional grouping. The country faces serious practical institutional and regulatory encounters that need to be addressed to actually implement free trade: for example, a system for the rules of origin. The inclusion of South Sudan’s into the EAC was done by neglecting the relationship between the market, society, and that between land and citizenship. Beholding principals of good governance, rule of law, and democracy, the other things that regional organizations consider in admitting new members include transparency, accountability, inclusively, fiscal responsibility, good leadership, respect for human rights and fair competition for public offices. Now that South Sudan is already a member of the EAC, the respondents indicated that adopting a common currency, for instance, would translate into economic and social development. This will benefit the regional regulatory framework, lead to a stable financial region and lead towards cost sharing of regional projects.