Political – legal structural constraints to political integration in Africa: a case study of east African community

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate structural political and legal constraints that undermine political integration in the East African Community. The study is guided by neofunctionalism theory. The centre-piece of neo-functionalism is the argument that the spillover functions that are performed by governments in one area result in cooperation in other areas leading eventually to integration. The findings of the study indicate that the success of the political integration of the East African Community will be achieved through political goodwill, adherence to good governance, and market driven economic policies with the support of a strong private sector. This requires sustainable institutional development, the development of an efficient and effective compensatory mechanism and putting in place an effective system of raising resources for the community. The study establishes that among the current crop of leaders of the region there is the political goodwill to establish the East African political federation. However, it will take more than political goodwill to bring the federation to fruition, as conditions in the region currently do not augur well for the project. Also, political leaders have not carried the people along with them on the integration journey. The study notes that for the region to fully attain its stated political goal, Partner States are required to develop and implement a common foreign, and security policies as enshrined in the EAC Treaty. It may be noted that already the East African Community has established two institutions, which also serves as building blocks to a Political Federation and these are; the East African Court of Justice; and the East African Legislative Assembly. The study concludes that the fear of losing national sovereignty and ability to make independent national decisions poses a serious challenge to the noble political integrative goal. Similarly lack of popular ownership by the populace undermines the East African political spirit.