Why I think our EAC cannot get to a 'Brexit' point

Brexit this, Brexit that. If you love counting then you have already seen the word Brexit four times now but I am sure you have probably not been counting how many times you have heard or read about it since Friday morning. It turns out that 17.4 million British people voted for Britain to leave the European Union (EU). Of course another 16.1 million preferred to remain but democracy is a numbers game so to the 16.1 million we can just say, “Sorry mates!” For those still not following, Brexit is a ‘corruption’ of Britain exiting from the EU. The ‘noise’ around Brexit emanates from the fact that the rest of the world, including the British themselves, are in shock with the outcome of the referendum on their future with EU. Proof that it was a disastrous decision can be seen on how the stock markets reacted as well as the effect on the British pound sterling. Soon after, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron who led the “Remain” campaign announced his resignation and now the former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is expected to be the next Prime Minister. The referendum is not a legally binding one but it will be weird if the government ignored the will of the voters. Scotland and Northern Ireland are now considering going their own way since they largely voted to remain with EU. Let’s not forget that Scotland had voted to remain as part of the UK but are not so comfortable with the new UK that wants to leave EU. One important observation on Brexit is that while many older people voted to leave the EU, the younger ones voted to remain. This can be seen to point to the fact that the young ones voted for their future while the older ones voted for their history (before the EU). The fear of being overwhelmed by immigrants has been the overriding reason why Britain found itself in this situation of considering severing ties with Brussels (EU). And it is this very reason why I am almost sure the East Africa Community which many love to compare to the EU, cannot get to a Brexit point. Many people have been grappling with the question; what does Brexit mean for us? And I noticed some were positing that it is a bad precedent for integration in the world and other unions may break up too with some even daring to point fingers to my beloved EAC. If indeed the Brits are fleeing from EU because they fear immigrants, then EAC could be the direct opposite. War in the Arab world and poverty in Africa are some of the reasons why immigrants have been running towards Europe in the hope of finding a better life. This has been used by right wing politicians to spread fear that the immigrants are going to take the jobs of the citizens as well as overwhelm their welfare systems. East Africa Community member states have on the other hand been hosting refugees from each other from ever since. War and poverty in the region has always forced people to move across borders for better livelihoods. Right now Burundians can be found in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda and even in DRC as refugees. Rwandans have been refugees in other EAC countries before; some Ugandans fled their country during the days of Idi Amin and the other day Kenyans were running to Uganda after a botched election in 2007. Tanzania may be the only country that has enjoyed relative stability and not had many of its own fleeing but it has been a host of lots of refugees. EAC has also been a big host to thousands of South Sudanese, Congolese and Somalis as well as some Eritreans. Even during the apartheid days in South Africa, many South Africans ended up being hosted in East Africa including Nelson Mandela. At no point in history has any East African country freaked out because of refugees. It is this shared troubled history that probably explains why EAC is more likely to stick together than break up over fear about people coming in. All said and done, we need now to learn that voter education is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly and we should analyse better what politicians say and the consequences of our choices at the ballot. As for the Brits, I hope they wake up from this nightmare.

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Why I think our EAC cannot get to a 'Brexit' point