Region-Building in Eastern Africa

Abstract

Regional integration in East Africa has long fascinated scholars and policymakers. Part of this interest stems from the long history of experimentation with integration in the region, going back to various colonial schemes, such as the 1917 Kenya-Uganda customs union. In 1967, the East African Common Services Organisation—which had come into being in 1961, on the eve of decolonization—became the East African Community (EAC), one of the most successful models of integration on the globe until its demise in 1977.1 Fifteen years since its revival in 2000, the EAC still generates significant interest in understanding the links between economic and political regionalism.