Hon. Deputy Secretary General Political Federation
Your Excellency
Charles Kinyanjui Njoroge
Charge d’ Affaire German Embassy Dar es Salaam
Dr. Hans Koeppel
Hon Head of EAC
Political Affairs
Ms Isabelle Waffubwa
My fellow outgoing EAC Youth Ambassadors from Kenya,
Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda
Mr. Tayebwa James EAC Youth Amb. to Republic of Uganda
Ms. Milly Mbedi EAC Youth Amb.
to Republic of Kenya
Mr. Desire Bigirimana EAC Youth Amb to Republic of
Burundi
Mr. Gashegu Muramira EAC Youth Amb to Republic of
Rwanda
Distinguished Selected Youth for the 2nd EAC
University Debate
Invited Guests ,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
First and foremost allow me
once again to welcome you all in Tanzania and indeed to her beautiful emerging
business city, so known as the Haven of Peace, Dar es Salaam.
On behalf of my fellow East
Africa Community Youth Ambassadors, I would like to take this opportunity and
great honor to stand before you this morning and share with you a successful
story on our journey towards a complete East Africa integration and youth total
participation as movers and shakers of the development wave.
Article 120 (c) of the EAC Treaty
provides for adoption of common approach for involvement of the youth in the
integration process through education, training and mainstreaming youth issues
into the EAC policies, projects and programs for strategic interventions.
Youth are important stakeholders and
given an opportunity, we influence the dissemination of information on EAC
integration, sensitization and education of youth and participation in policy
development in view of our creativity and energy.
Since the EAC Secretariat
opened the youth platform to be included in championing the integration process
by forming the East Africa Community Youth Ambassadorial program together with
the Best Youth Debaters, it has juxtaposed the post independence generation of
the federation to enjoy unparalleled participation in decision making and
policy formulation.
The East Africa Community
Youth Platform championed by the Youth Ambassadors has indeed proven to be the
epitome of youth inclusion for our common interest in exercising our talents
and opening the doors of opportunity to every citizen of East Africa to become
part and parcel of the development wave.
For the period of one year, we
have been able to reach out a larger audience and a leading East Africa
population, to sensitize on the importance and benefits of integration by
conducting seminars in our major cities of the partner states including Bujumbura,
Kigali, Nairobi, Kampala, Arusha and in my own city Dar es Salaam. The call for
youth involvement and participation in the regional level is quite resounding
and many have joined the platform including our very best selected colleagues
of today to learn and disseminate the information to our peers of all races and
categories within the region and those in Diaspora.
Through the youth platform,
East Africa Community has indeed opened the doors to learn and embrace good
governance by participating fully in any given democratization process which is
among the core pillars towards attaining sustainable leadership; leadership
that will lift our families, leadership that will sustain our community and
indeed leadership that will transform our generation.
In echoing such responsible
leadership, for the first time in the history of our Community, the Youth
Ambassadors played a significant role on democracy by being among the EAC
Election Mission Observers to the Kenyan General election that was conducted
early this year on March 3rd 2013. As
EAC Youth Ambassadors, our task and mandate was to observe and make a report on
how the election in Kenya was conducted and supervised at all levels before,
during and after election results. Here,
I would just like to congratulate once more the Kenyan people for conducting a
peaceful election and heartfelt congratulations to the Kenyan youth for being
the champions for peace before during and after the election results. I also salute them for being able to turn out
in a larger number that the East Africa region has never experienced before as
they made their choice by casting the ballot.
This indeed has proven to the region, the continent and the world at
large that young people can make a difference.
Through our tenure as the
focal point on youth affairs in the region, we
faced the great challenges of our time with renewed vigor, zeal and zest
and of course with new speed towards adopting lasting solutions. Achieving quality education and employment
has been a major cry towards achieving sustainable development in the
region. Our task and mandate forward is
to influence our policies and the policy makers within the region to
re-structure and re-frame the current policies that will fit in with the
current paradigm shift. We have challenged and influenced both the East Africa
Business Council and the East Africa Inter-University Council by putting the
youth ideas forward ( the targeted people) on reforming and reshaping our
policies that will open the doors of opportunity to every young person who
belongs to the region.
Speaking from the same breath,
the harmonization of the education policy within the East Africa region is
underway and private sectors and industry opening opportunities for youth to
exercise their talents in their organizations through internship programs
speaks the same.
We have indeed spearheaded the
formation of the East Africa Model Union where students and young people within
the Community will simulate the EAC National Assembly, debating and coming out
with concrete solutions that will help the EAC Secretariat to build a stronger
and committed Community.
Our Message:
Through our work as EAC Youth
Ambassadors, we have learned that East Africa region and Africa at large has
nascent intelligentsia that we can empower ourselves to become the quality
intelligentsia that our Community and the Continent deserves. The
knowledge that we have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that we
are, ever after, secure in our ability to make
our East Africa Community survive and reach its ultimate goal to
federation.
As we demand for more voice and
participation within our respective countries, we have learned that the way we
vote, the way we live, the way we protest, the pressure we bring to bear on our governments, has an
impact way beyond your borders; and therefore we are the custodians to our East
Africa Community.
Vote of Thanks
We acknowledge and appreciate the
committed effort of our EAC Secretary General H.E Ambassador Dr. R. Sezibera and EAC Secretariat for giving a youth a
platform to participate and be part of the decision making at the regional
level. The formation of the EAC Youth
Policy speaks beyond commitment of the Community to achieve her mission and
vision.
We acknowledge GIZ Organization and
indeed the Germany Embassy as a partner to our East Africa Community
integration for sponsoring most of our work on youth affairs whenever
necessary. We also extend our sincere
hand of appreciation to all other
partners of East Africa Community including the East Africa Business Council
and East Africa Inter University Council for giving youth a space and place to
put their ideas and influence the policies that will work for the betterment of
the entire community.
We salute the best people at hand
who are always ready to air our voices. The East Africa Media and the
international media for disseminating the information to our peers within the
region and those in diaspora on the successful story about young people within
the East Africa Community.
In conclusion, as we look forward to
inherit the future and lead the East Africa Community’s vision and mission to her fulfilment in our
generation, we the young people are called upon today to remind ourselves once
more that; we are never too young to lead and we should never doubt our
capacity to triumph where others have not.
The education that we have received and that which we continue to
receive should prepare us to lead the way without fear and timid but with
courage and team work. Out of many we are one.
East Africa One People One Destiny.
And finally,on a closing note, I
cannot overemphasize our gratitude to the EAC community for giving us the youth
of the federation this great opportunity to tell our story. I have heard that unless lions have
historians, the hunt will always glorify the hunter...this is not the case for
us, we are lions with historians, long live the EAC, long live the EAC youth.
Thank you very much
Long Live East Africa Community
God bless Africa
Raymond C Maro
EAC Youth
Ambassador to United Republic of Tanzania
East Africa Community
Dar es Salaam Tanzania- 03-09-2013
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