The East African Community (EAC), which comprises Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, intends to become “a single tourist area” under its vast regional integration project, APA learns here on Tuesday.

We want to make the East African Community a single tourist area with a single tourist visa, EAC Secretary General, Richard Sezibera said during a press conference held at the organization’s headquarters in Arusha, northern Tanzania.

The use of the single tourist visa has been in force since last year for Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya which are determined to move faster than the other two members on the path of economic integration.

Tanzania has announced that it wants to join the single tourist visa. This is very important. Burundi has also expressed interest in joining the system, Mr. Sezibera said.

The regional bloc has however experienced a major crisis over the past two years with Burundi and Tanzania suspecting the other three members of having a hidden agenda and isolating them.

The presidents of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya had met several times in the absence of their counterparts in Tanzania and Burundi to accelerate the construction of large regional infrastructure, including a railway and a pipeline connecting their three capital cities.

The tension between Tanzania and Rwanda reached its peak in May 2013 when, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete suggested the holding of direct talks between Kigali and rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Furthermore, a Tanzanian contingent is part of the UN force that in 2013 supported the DRC army in its victorious offensive against Congolese M23 rebellion which Kigali was accused of supporting. Rwanda has however always denied the accusations.

Relations between the two countries have improved significantly. They are certainly better than what they were before, Mr. Sezibera assured.

In addition to a customs union set up in 2005, the EAC launched in July 2010, a common market implementation of which remains slow. The organization is also considering a monetary union and dreams of a political federation.

Source: Star Africa

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