Tanzania vs Kenya’s Constitution - 4

Dar es Salaam. Today, we continue looking into some basic features of Tanzania, 1977 and Kenya’s Constitution, 2010 and see how they will or not contribute to the establishment of the federal Constitution of East Africa Community (EAC), when the right time comes. We all know that the doctrine of constitutionalism is still novel in our East African countries although Kenya and Tanzania are in the right direction to have good Constitutions that later can be easy for harmonisation and thus become a contemporary example to the rest of EAC member countries. As part of replicating the salient features in Chapters One and Two, which we began to compare and contrast three weeks ago, let’s see the importance of Kiswahili and English languages in bringing together the people of East Africa under the auspicious of EAC towards political federation.

The proposed Constitution of Tanzania and the Constitution of Kenya now recognise Kiswahili and English as national and official languages although differently. For the case of Tanzania, the proposed Constitution recognises Kiswahili as the only national language that will be used in all official communications, while English is an optional language that will be used when a need arises. For the case of Kenya, Kiswahili is both the national and official language, while English is the official language. This is self-evident in Article 4(1) & (2) for Tanzania and Article 7(1) & (2) for Kenya. Language is a hallmark of any society and the EAC region cannot flourish without having any common language that will be both national and official language.

While Tanzania and Kenya have gone far in recognising Kiswahili as the national language in their basic laws, other three EAC member countries are officially connected to EAC through English language only and thus Kiswahili is neither the national nor the official language of either of the three member countries of EAC. The proposed Constitution has given Kiswahili another status. It is one of the core values for Tanzanians, (Article 5(a). For Kenya, Kiswahili is not one of their core values (Article 10(2) of the Constitution of Kenya of 2010).

Nevertheless, Kenya’s Constitution [Article 7(3)] recognises and promotes development and use of indigenous languages, while Tanzania discourages the official use of indigenous languages. Media laws of Tanzania like The Newspaper Act, 1976 allows use of Kiswahili and English languages only. With this disparity of languages, how EAC will continue flourishing and then reaching its dream of becoming a political federation? Common language unites people and different languages confuse people just like what happened in the beginning of the human race as we read in the Bible in the book of Genesis 11: 1-9. Big nations like the US, China, UK, Germany, etc and so on made it because of having common language for their people. Common language speeds up development and civilisation of society.

When EAC was re-established in 2000, it was thought that EAC first three members would agree to go into a full political federation within a very short time. But Wangwe Committee that was formed by President Kikwete to look into a possibility of fast trucking the EAC federation came out with a very disappointing report. Apparently, according to Wangwe Report, most Tanzanians were not ready for the political federation for many reasons, not ignoring a disparity of languages and a business culture that Kenyans have been in for many years.

Tanzanians feel proud of Kiswahili, while Kenyans and Ugandans feel proud of English. In Tanzania we honour Kiswahili as a medium that has united and helped to disfight against tribalism and thus build one united nation. One of the contributing factors, which still retain a high degree of tribalism in the rest of EAC member countries is lack of a common indigenous language that can officially be used by all citizens. Although constitutionally Kenya recognises Kiswahili as both the national and official language, practically that is not happening. In Kenya, Kiswahili might be used as only spoken language, but not the language in the official sense of writing public documents like policies and laws.

For the case of Tanzania, undermining English language and aiming at promoting Kiswahili alone as the official language is also an obstacle for harmonisation of cultural elements that would within a short time begin to bring East Africans closer and closer. While Tanzanians can proudly say that Kiswahili is now an indigenous language of every Tanzanian citizen, we shouldn’t ignore and play down the use of English language. We must continue writing our policies, laws and other important public documents in both Kiswahili and English languages, knowing that for the rest of EAC members like Uganda and Kenya, English will remain their official language for many decades.

Kenya should make Kiswahili an official language and start writing their policies and laws in both Kiswahili and English, and begin to use Kiswahili in national businesses like the parliament and during national functions. Currently, President Uhuru Kenyatta is fond of English language to the extent that many people outside Kenya may think he does not speak Kiswahili at all. If Kenya and Tanzania begin to give both languages proper place as the languages that deserve equal promotion and development, then this will begin to bring Kenyans and Tanzanians closer as brothers and sisters and that will also be a lesson to be learnt by other countries in the EAC bloc.

Rwanda on this issue of languages for the common good has shown unprecedented courage in deciding to switch to English from French. Not only that, Rwanda is also doing very well in introducing Kiswahili as a subject in all its elementary schools. I do not know how the situation is in Uganda and Burundi, whether they are doing the same like Rwanda or not. As East Africans, nothing will harmoniously bring us together and guarantee us political federation like Kiswahili language. This is because Kiswahili is a Bantu language that can easily be learned by all EAC societies if they are both mobilised and empowered by their governments like Mwalimu Julius Nyerere did for Tanzanians after independence. Let’s honour Kiswahili and English as our East African languages for the common good as a way of speeding up the political federation without which we will make it.

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