WHICH WAY FOR AFRICA?-DAVID OYOLA (Chair,Nairobi University Political Science Students' Organisation)

The same fate that begot the Organization of African Union,OAU and killed it, which later begot Muammar Gaddafi and KILLED him is the same one eating East African Community and the same one that is going to KILL the African Union. EAC and AU have one thing in common,They are destined to great failure due to poor leadership from the African leaders. Too sad to see great institutions started but used politically by bad leaders for their own gains and finally dies a natural death.
It all started going wrong when they all openly came out lashing at the west with insults, bravado and arrogance.  A student of comparative foreign policy will tell you that under such diplomatic mishaps, in the realists theory, nations which are at the CORE i.e rich countries; controls the international systems and ALL international organizations e.g the UN which African Union falls under and by default,the EAC.
Countries at the periphery a.k.a those at the south or third world countries or developing countries all salute the nations at the core. The only way countries such as those from the third world countries to to sustain their national budgets and control the international organizations is simple,let them develop towards the core. That is why Kenya will never succeed in her shuttle diplomacy against the Hague.
China the other day made a debut into Kenyan market. they started with toys, phones which are made by Chinese students and get tested or dumped in Africa, they then went ahead and won several govt tenders on infrastructure development. The west had to move so fast; immediately they started exporting their machines like vehicles,tractors and motorbikes into Kenyan market. The US whose currency,the Dollar, is used for international trade and transactions, introduced COMMISSIONS on any dollar traded internationally on certain goods listed above, that would mean that importing any vehicle from china into Kenya,would cost higher than Japanese Toyota products. China is a developing nation,just like Kenya and Somalia,this makes her talk softly in the table of men at the restaurant of international politics, other countries such as Uganda are just waiters in the same restaurant. African leaders simply needs to put their houses in order and stop combative political bargains in the international arena. The US is not opposition leader in any African state,hence the presidents needs to know how diplomacy is generated and identify the difference. A clear case study is by simply looking at the latest behavior by Tanzania,Burundi and South Sudan.
Kenya's budget for the year 2013/2014 was at US $19b while that of Tanzania was at US $11b, this is a difference that can be bridged in years not more than 20. Kenya and other African states needs to improve on their foreign policies.
By: David Oyola;
Chairman, University of Nairobi Political Science Students' Association