EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization of 5 Partner States: the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC is home to 145.5 million citizens, of which 22% is urban population. With a land area of 1.82 million square kilometers and a combined Gross Domestic Product of US$ 147.5 billion .its realization bears great strategic and geopolitical significance and prospects for the renewed and reinvigorated EAC.
The work of the EAC is guided by its Treaty which established the Community. It was signed on 30 November 1999 and entered into force on 7 July 2000 following its ratification by the original three Partner States - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi acceded to the EAC Treaty on 18 June 2007 and became full Members of the Community with effect from 1 July 2007.
As one of the fastest growing regional economic blocs in the world, the EAC is widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in various key spheres for their mutual benefit. These spheres include political, economic and social.
At the moment, the regional integration process is in full swing as reflected by the encouraging progress of the East African Customs Union, the establishment of the Common Market in 2010 and the implementation of the East African Monetary Union Protocol.

Vision
The vision of EAC is to be a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable and politically united East Africa. Mission
The mission of the Community is to widen and deepen economic, political, social and cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of the people of East Africa through increased competitiveness, value added production, trade and investments. Values
Underpinning the EAC is our commitment to our values:
Professionalism
Accountability
Transparency
Teamwork
Unity in Diversity
Allegiance to EAC ideals

Social-Economic and Political Issues within EAC 1. It has been argued, that Kenya wishes to export surplus capital, Uganda seeks an outlet for its surplus labour. 2. Some have questioned the extent to which the visions of a political union are shared outside the elite and the relatively elderly, arguing that the youthful mass of the population is not well informed about the process in any of the countries. 3. Lack of an enhanced sense of East African identity developing from modern communications. Commitment to the formal EAC idea is relatively narrow, in both social and generational terms, and thus many have questioned the timetable for the project. 4. There have been concerns that rapid changes would allow popular reactionary politics against the project. There has been an argument, however, that there are high costs that would be required at the beginning and that fast-tracking the project would allow the benefits to be seen earlier. 5. There remains significant political differences between the states. Museveni's success in obtaining his third-term amendment raised doubts in the other countries. The single-party dominance in the Tanzanian and Ugandan parliaments is unattractive to Kenyans, while Kenya's ethnic-politics remains absent in Tanzania. Rwanda has a distinctive political culture with a political elite committed to building a developmental state, partly to safeguard the Tutsi group against a return to ethnic violence. 6. States being reluctant to relinquish involvement in other regional groups, Tanzania's withdrawal from COMESA but staying within the SADC bloc for the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations with the European Union. 7. Many Tanzanians are also concerned because creating a common market means removing obstacles to the free movement of both labour and capital. Free movement of labour may be perceived as highly desirable in Uganda and Kenya, and have important developmental benefits in Tanzania; however, in Tanzania there is widespread resistance to the idea of ceding land rights to foreigners, including citizens of Kenya and Uganda.
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