Rwandan citizens' sovereignty, popular participation, and the EAC integration and democratization

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze Rwanda's participation in the East African Community (EAC) integration project. It will investigate whether Rwanda citizens' sovereignty has been trampled upon as a result of the drive by the EAC toward a Political Federation in the near future. Basing the argument on the neofunctional approach, the chapter reviewed Rwanda's role in ensuring that the EAC fulfills the objectives it set out to do in its charter. Emphasis will be on explaining how Rwanda participates in the decision-making processes of the various organs of the EAC, challenges with other Partner States which could hamper the integration process and policy analysis aimed at extracting the best from the EAC integration project for the benefit of the people of Rwanda. The chapter understands that while there is a framework in achieving Political Federation, which is the end game of the integration project in the EAC, there are challenges which need to be overcome in order for this milestone to be achieved. While the African Union (AU) have insisted that sub-regional organizations should be the building blocks for a United States of Africa, the importance of the EAC in uniting countries in the East African sub-region.