Reinvigorating Pan-Africanism to Tackle the Challenges of Political Commitment in African Economic Integration The Case of the East African Community

Abstract

Policy studies in Africa indicate that Pan-Africanism has been assumed to lay the foundations for regional
integration in Africa. The regional economic communities have been tasked with transitioning African
countries to the continental single economic community. The African Union endorsed eight regional
economic communities. East African Community is one of the eight regional economic communities. This
study investigated the challenges related to the political commitment of leaders and technocrats in the case
of the East African Community. The paper used a scoping desk review (for secondary data), key informant
interviews and focus group discussions (for primary) as data collection methods. A thematic analysis was
conducted based on the checklist of variables. The study revealed that the EAC‟s Pan-African continental
integration agenda struggles with leaders and technocrats‟ lack of political commitment. This weak political
commitment led to a weak implementation of the Pan-African initiatives. The technocrats are highly
obsessed with the neoliberal agenda, and this did not give adequate expertise and support for the
implementation of the Pan-African projects. The study documented policy evidence on the results of the
implementation of initiatives on the one hand and the implied weakness of the political commitment from
leaders and technocrats at the EAC. Thus, interventions geared towards improving the political commitment
of leaders and technocrats are required to implement the agenda of Pan-African regional integration in the
EAC and the other regional economic communities.