Kampala – Visiting Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, hailed democracy in Africa as `unique and home grown’ in a speech at the Ugandan Parliament on Monday.
He warned that attempts by the West to impose democracy on Africa have failed to yield good results before.
“We know from bitter experience in recent global history that attempts to impose democracy have led to mass atrocity and state failure.
“There is no appropriate one-size-fits all approach nor should there be attempts to turn countries into similar copies,” Kenyatta told the parliamentarians.
Kenyatta, on a three-day State Visit to neighbouring Uganda, Kenya’s biggest export market, has been keen to resolve long-standing trade disputes and to discuss fresh infrastructure projects, covering railway, ports and pipelines, to bolster trade.
Kenyatta asked his audience to ensure that leaders were held accountable to democracy through elections.
“Our democratic sensibility is no foreign import. It is a central part of our diverse cultures and now needs to be updated for new national and regional identities we have built since independence,” he said.
The Kenyan leader admitted that democracy had not had a straight period of success in the east African.
The region covering the Great Lakes – Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and South Sudan – has for the longest period been referred to as Africa’s hotbed of conflicts.
Kenyatta said though the region had troubles arising from the ashes of colonialism, countries such as Kenya had accepted the principle that ‘opposition is not enmity’.
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He said the opposition and the civil society should not use the democratic space to paint the legitimate authorities as failures.
Meanwhile, Kenyatta hailed the progress towards an East African Community (EAC) Political Federation, saying it would bolster the region’s international image.
The EAC has been planning a political Federation since 2003. The Federation has a political roadmap, which includes a single currency and customs union which allows free movement of goods and services.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said regional integration championed by the African Union was more about the prosperity of the African traders.
“Integration is not just a fashion. It is about prosperity of business groups and the people of Africa,” Museveni said.
The Ugandan leader praised Kenyatta for ensuring the removal of trade barriers and easing the flow of goods from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala, from 18 days to just three days.
The two countries are currently implementing the standard gauge railway project, which the Museveni said would ease the movement of goods to just 24 hours and lead to a 60 per cent reduction in the cost of freight.
Kenya and Uganda are also planning a 1,380kilometer heated oil pipeline. (PANA/NAN)