WHO WANTS A POLITICAL FEDERATION IN EAST AFRICA, ANYWAY?

When Ugandan president argues that “He will retire in 2013 after seeing the reality of a political federation in East Africa” one is left awed by the wisdom of our leaders. Sample this: a jailed leadingopposition leader, a distorted, contorted, arm-twisted constitution that has created a life presidency and the insatiable, self-styled one-man vision. Across the border in the east, we have a passive dictator, a corrupt government and a plutocratic crop of leaders with self-conceited egos who call the shots there. Then down in the south we have a country giving its all for democracy space and sanity in upholding the constitution and the rule of the law. Thus the six-million-dollars question remains: who wants a political federation in East Africa, anyway?

Our leaders should stay warned on this blind, egocentric pursuit. An economic federation in East Africa is ideal and timely for now, but a political federation is doomed to fail from the word go. A single president for over 80 million souls? A single president for over 100 tribes? From which country will the first president come from and from which tribe? Forget about America and give me a break! Call me a pessimist but let us be realistic. Our politics are overly clannish and tribal. Kenya is fighting tribalism as a national political threat. Tanzania is not spared the vice of regionalism, neither is the 'vision home' Uganda where the western tribes and the northern tribes live two worlds apart.

All this handicaps, yet all our leaders want us to believe is that we can combine all these impossibilities and create a wholesome possibility. Who is the fool here? If President Museveni is sincere in his ambition for a viable political federation in East Africa, he should forget about a fifth term in office and dedicate all his energy in this noble pursuit. After all, his buddies are almost heading home. President Mkapa paid his last tribute to the nation as a true statesman and we know that his advice on East Africa dream will be welcome, timely and weighed seriously. President Kibaki is under siege and only God knows whether he can master enough guts to think again of the East Africa political federation.

This leaves only one man with a vision and ambition for over 80 million people. What happened to seriousness? We don’t want comical and theoretical politics. Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians should reject this selfish ploy by our leaders to put our respective motherlands in inevitable collective political wrangles. Museveni should give another reason as to his decision to become a fast-rising modern dictator other than hoodwinking Ugandans with this joke of the year. Was this man serious in the words? If yes, he should tell it to the birds!

This idea of a political East Africa federation failed 30 years ago. Whether they sugar-coat it and present it as a new bride, it will suffer the same fate. After all, how many Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians are ready to give up their national pride for such a puppet project? I bet very few if any. The warning is that we have to be careful as we trend to the past so that the same folly that crashed our founding fathers and their egos may not crash us too. We should say no to unnecessary political federations.