East African Community

Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda signed the treaty at Arusha on 30 November 1999; the rest acceded between 2007 and 2023. The roster on this page is read from the Community's own list of partner states rather than assembled from country records, because a partial answer would be worse than none.

It signed the treaty of accession on 15 December 2023, and membership took effect on 4 March 2024, when the instrument of ratification was deposited. The application had been before the Summit for years before that. Admission is a matter for the partner states acting together under Article 3 of the treaty, and nothing in that article sets a deadline for an answer.

Article 3(3) lists what the partner states take into account: acceptance of the Community as the treaty sets it out, adherence to universally acceptable principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice, potential contribution to integration in the East African region, geographical proximity to and interdependence with the partner states, a market driven economy, and compatible social and economic policies. The decision rests with the partner states together.

Yes. The East African Court of Justice was established by Article 9 of the treaty and inaugurated at Arusha on 30 November 2001. Article 27(1) confines it to the interpretation and application of the treaty. Article 30 allows any person resident in a partner state to refer the legality of an act, regulation, directive, decision or action, within two months of it.

No. The Protocol on the Establishment of the East African Monetary Union was signed on 30 November 2013 and set a horizon of ten years, and no single currency has been issued. Article 5(2) puts the monetary union third in its sequence, after the customs union in force since 2005 and the common market that took effect in 2010.

Article 137 of the treaty makes English the official language of the Community and provides that Kiswahili shall be developed as a lingua franca. Six of the member records carry English among their official languages and four carry Swahili. The records for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and for Somalia carry neither, which is one of the things the accessions after 2016 changed.