OPINION: Lets Tell The East African Story And End Informational Shame

As such, this initiative could not have come at a better time.

Simplified, friendly, and easy-to-read documents will ensure everyone gets the opportunity to understand the mission and vision of the Community.

This will serve to deepen and accelerate the integration agenda across the region.

Every pro-integration official has said time and again that the regional integration process ought to be people-centred and private sector-led.

This ideal cannot be achieved if the challenge of highly technical documents and sensitisation materials is not dealt with as a matter of urgency.

The sooner ordinary citizens understand the EAC mission, the easier it will be for them to embrace and support the integration agenda.

The faster the common man in the rural areas can be assisted to understand the gains that the regional integration agenda promises to bring about, the easier it will be to achieve the mass grass-root support that is so critical for regional initiatives to work.

This will open up unprecedented opportunities for our region.

There is a need, therefore to simplify all documents, translate them into local languages, and make them accessible to ordinary citizens in the five partner states.

GUARANTEED FUTURE

This will make it possible for ordinary citizens to fully “own” the integration process and so guarantee its future.

There have been myriad complaints that the EAC integration process is president-centred and state-owned.

A major cause of this unfortunate scenario is of course the technical language and jargon that finds its way into these documents and sensitisation materials.

A study conducted by a team of researchers on the state of integration revealed that less than 20 per cent of ordinary citizens have some understanding of the mission, vision and objectives of the Community.

Worst of all, among the professional cadres such as doctors, lawyers and teachers, less than 20 per cent understand the core values of the Community.

It is saddening that most EAC citizens do not even know all the members of the EAC, with 95 per cent of Kenyans only able to identify Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as EAC members.

More than 22 per cent of the citizens had no sense of being East African.

Partly due to the low educational level among women, especially those who are rural dwellers, the knowledge of regional issues is almost non-existent.

The youth are not much better off, either.

INFORMATIONAL SHAME

The study also found that more than 20 per cent of EAC citizens do not receive any information on the EAC from any media outlet.

This is indeed an Informational Shame, especially when we take into account the current rapid expansion of media channels.

Yet, this is a hurdle that must be overcome if the region is to make any meaningful headway towards the fifth and final pillar of integration: political federation.

The dream of a united people with a common destiny can only be realized from our homes and villages, not corporate boardrooms.

One way of doing so is by taking advantage of community and vernacular broadcasting stations. This would ensure that even illiterate and low-learned citizens are not left behind by the integration train.

Again, we must redefine matters of public interest to include the regional integration agenda.

Public service broadcasters, who are by law established to take care of public interest issues, will need to play a more proactive role in offering the public relevant information.

Commercial broadcasters and newspapers can also be requested to give increasing prominence to issues affecting the region. 

Leaflets, posters, brochures and other publicity materials, written in local dialects of the people, would no doubt be of great help as well.

These can be made available and prominently displayed in public places, including pinning posters in local hospitals, schools and public buildings.

Such efforts will be given a major boost by the quick enactment and implementation of the EAC Integration Education Bill.

But even before then, it is the duty of the EAC Secretariat, in collaboration with EAC ministries in each partner state, civil society organisations and the mainstream media, to initiate aggressive awareness campaigns using simplified documents and sensitisation materials to advance the course of integration.

By Anne Kiruku