How governance woes have led to poverty and insecurity in EAC

Arusha. A story has been running rounds repeatedly for many years that the East African countries were at the same level of development with those of South East Asia during the independence days for both sides in the early 1960s.

For some, that is not imaginable when one compares countries like Singapore and Malaysia to any state in East Africa or rather the rest of sub-Saharan countries except South Africa.

Singapore, the state city considered among the most developed places in the world in terms of Human Development Index, is literally glittering while the narrow streets of Dar es Salaam are littered with garbage, oozing sewerage and clogged during storm water.

Singapore and its neighbouring Malaysia and other countries in SE Asia have some of the highest per capita incomes in the world while some partner states in the East African Community (EAC) are considered to be among the poorest in the global community.  For instance, until the 1990s, Tanzania was said to be the third poorest country globally although the criteria used by whoever came up with those statistics is not clearly known. And in much more recent years, the strife-torn Burundi, another EAC state, has dropped very close to the bottom.

So what went wrong? One would be tempted to ask when comparing the two regions of the world which essentially are still grouped in the loose community called the developing countries.

Daniel Kidega, the Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) believes on the linkage between poverty and good governance.

That implies that the increasing levels of poverty in the region may have been caused by poor governance. Conversely, good governance is a prerequisite in poverty reduction.

He made the remarks in Nairobi recently during the 10th Inter-Parliamentary Relations (Nanyuki Series) organized by Eala and its long time partner, the European Parliamentarians with Africa (Awepa).

“If we don’t bring in laws which will enhance conducive laws for good governance, poor governance will accelerate poverty and will simply inflict more misery to mankind”, he said, noting that the regional Parliament has always taken matters of good governance and poverty “very seriously”.

According to him, seven out of the 10 persons one sees in the streets of Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Bujumbura, Nairobi, Kigali or Kampala or in other cities and settlements across East Africa, are jobless while another six out of ten live in informal settlements.

The largest population, the youth, constitute about eight out of 10 persons and their age range is below 30 years.

“In essence, therefore, unemployment is a key factor often leading to increased crime, radicalization and terrorism. Insecurity further compounds the misery of inequalities”, he said.

Mr. Kidega, who is an Eala member from Uganda, warned; “We could be setting ourselves up for failure should we fail to mop up weapons and silence the guns in some of the partner states in the region. Peace and security duly enables citizens to enjoy their freedoms and are an panacea to development”.

However, he admitted that the web between bad governance, poverty and corruption was intricate such that fighting each of them was not only difficult but mind boggling, especially due to the role normally played by the corruption vice which, according to him, has sunk deep in the society’s social fabric.

“If we do not address the underlying issues, then we are in grave danger of not meeting the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), on one side, and disintegrating our socio-economic fibre, on the other”, he pointed out.

Governance, according to Mr. Kidega, is not just a matter for the government and public sector - but to the private sector “as well and more so as opportunities become available under the Common Market Protocol”.

He reminded the audience that poverty reduction was a universal agenda with many developing countries, including EAC partner states, developing the donor-supported poverty reduction strategies which have not been so popular.

“Parliamentarians have a fundamental role to play in ensuring poverty is reduced through enhancement of good governance”, he said,emphasizing building a united front devoid of political affiliations in the struggle to contain poverty.

He added; “Poverty does not delineate who supports government or who is sponsored by opposition in Parliament. Poverty reduction is a human rights issue that should be addressed so because poverty and impoverishment can take advantage of conditions of exclusion, injustice, unresponsive leadership to further depress the wretched populace”, he pointed out.

His remarks were supported by the Speaker of the Parliament of Kenya Justin Muturi who said poverty reduction was increasingly becoming a rights-based issue.”Indeed its political premise is that a process led and institutionally structured anti-poverty strategy may reconstitute governance.

He said poverty was a policy issue that existed in the political domain, adding that poverty, inequality and governance were now seen to be inseparably related “because without governance, bad policy choices will be made, the people would have neither voice or power and the economy may likely deteriorate”.

Similarly when poverty and inequality persists in a society, it weakens the political process and promotes deficient governance.

Tanzania’s deputy minister for East African Cooperation Dr. Suzanne Kolimba challenged the East African leaders to embrace good governance in their anti-poverty fight, saying over a half of the population in the region survive on less than one dollar a day.

“In order to uplift the standard of living of our people, we should promote good governance which would also ensure equity in resource distribution” she said.

Dr. Kolimba, who has served as the current Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers said although EAC is deemed to be one of the fastest growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa with increasing foreign direct investments (FDIs), the economic boom seems not to have been translated in equal measure with income generation and employment opportunities.

“Poverty seems to be on the rise in the region with the gap between the rich and the poor widening. The concentration of wealth has remained largely unchanged over the years”, she explained.

The chairperson of Burundi Electoral Commission Amb. Pierre Claver Ndayicariye said good governance is crucial for development, calling on the political leaders in the region to use it as a tool to fight poverty. That can be attained if the governments relaxed regulations in order to remove obstacles to economic participation.–

“I agree that good governance and poverty reduction are two linked pillars and must remain linked to promote human rights for all citizens within the Community. Violence and poverty are dangerous. In some EAC countries, violence and poverty seem to be always with us”, he pointed out