Tanzania Is The Rot Killing The East African Dream

The East African Community (EAC) was envisioned as a regional powerhouse — a single market built on unity, integration, and free movement of people, goods, and capital. It was not just an ideal; it was a strategy to lift millions out of poverty, boost trade, and make East Africa a global economic bloc. But that vision is crumbling — and Tanzania is holding the hammer.

In its latest xenophobic move, the Tanzanian government has banned non-citizens from engaging in small-scale businesses such as salons, retail shops, tour guiding, restaurants, and even purchasing crops directly from farmers. This decision is not only misguided but deeply destructive to the very foundation of the EAC Common Market Protocol, which was signed in 2010 to eliminate barriers to regional economic growth.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: Tanzania is betraying East Africa.

It is refusing to play by the rules it helped create, rules that promised millions across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo that borders would no longer be barriers to opportunity. By banning regional citizens from small-scale commerce — a key pillar of cross-border livelihood — Tanzania is effectively declaring war on integration.

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The hypocrisy could not be more glaring. Tanzania gladly exports electricity to Kenya, trades livestock with Uganda, and leverages EAC infrastructure projects like the Central Corridor. But when it comes to letting fellow Africans set up a salon in Arusha or buy bananas from a farmer in Morogoro, suddenly it screams “national interest.”

This is the antithesis of Pan-Africanism. And it’s dangerous.

The data doesn’t lie. Between 2018 and 2022, Tanzania’s trade with Kenya ballooned from $300 million to $500 million. With Uganda, it grew from $250 million to $370 million. These gains were driven largely by improved relations, infrastructure, and open-border commerce. Yet in 2023, trade dipped — a reflection of tightening protectionist policies and growing mistrust. The very trend that elevated Tanzania’s economy is now being reversed by its hand.

Tanzania’s move is not about protecting citizens — it’s about political cowardice disguised as nationalism. It stems from a misguided fear of competition and a deeply embedded suspicion of its neighbors. Instead of regulating and formalizing these sectors, it’s shutting doors and building walls.

Let’s talk about livelihoods. Thousands of Kenyan and Ugandan families depend on informal cross-border trade with Tanzania. They sell beauty products, import produce, and run tour companies that serve the entire region. This ban isn’t just anti-EAC, it’s anti-poor, anti-youth, and anti-women — because these are the groups that dominate small business.

It’s also economically foolish.

A report by the East African Business Council (EABC) shows that informal trade accounts for up to 30% of EAC intra-regional trade. Denying this segment legal room to grow chokes a revenue stream that could otherwise be taxed, structured, and scaled. It also feeds smuggling and corruption, two evils the region is trying hard to eliminate.

Tanzania is also shooting itself in the foot. By making it harder for foreigners to do small-scale business, it discourages tourism diversification, reduces inflows of foreign exchange, and discourages diaspora returnees who may not be “citizens” on paper but still contribute meaningfully.

This policy is also a diplomatic middle finger to neighbors. Why should Kenya allow Tanzanian entrepreneurs to operate duka la dawa, salons, or travel agencies in Nairobi when Tanzanians are criminalizing the same opportunities for others at home? This tit-for-tat retaliation will be disastrous.

If every country in the EAC followed Tanzania’s backward thinking, the bloc would disintegrate into a mess of mini-isolations. Uganda could ban Kenyan agribusiness players. Kenya could block Tanzanian engineers. South Sudan could target Congolese traders. Where would this end?

Let’s not forget that the world is watching. Investors from the EU, China, and the US are keenly evaluating Africa’s ability to build regional value chains. What message does Tanzania send when it tramples the very frameworks designed to support such chains?

Tanzania’s actions are also legally questionable. Article 16 of the EAC Common Market Protocol mandates equal treatment of EAC citizens. Tanzania’s exclusion of non-citizens from whole sectors is a direct violation. It’s a legal disaster waiting to happen.

And what of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)? Tanzania is a signatory. How can it commit to a continental free market while pulling the plug on a regional one? This is like pretending to run a marathon after chopping off your legs.

This protectionist nonsense will haunt Tanzania’s economy in the long term. When regional players retaliate, Tanzania will lose access to labor, skills, investment, and goodwill. Already, Kenyan companies like Equity Bank and Bidco have faced unnecessary bureaucratic hostility there. This move adds more fuel to the fire.

Some might argue Tanzania is simply protecting local jobs. But real protection comes from empowering local entrepreneurs to compete — not banning others. Tanzania could have issued permits, set quotas, or incentivized partnerships. Instead, it chose the nuclear option.

Worse still, this policy ignores the voice of the people. Tanzanian youth are the ones who benefit from the exchange of ideas, cultures, and products. They’re the tour guides, techies, and content creators who thrive on openness. This ban limits their world and stunts their potential.

The damage also extends to regional identity. The EAC passport, the single tourist visa, and common trade protocols now seem like meaningless paper. What use is an EAC passport if you’re treated like a criminal in Dar es Salaam for selling food or guiding tourists?

Even tourism — one of Tanzania’s biggest earners — will suffer. Many tour companies are regional. If Tanzanian laws isolate tour guiding, regional packages will become harder to organize. Tourists will skip the complexity and go to Kenya, Rwanda, or Uganda instead.

It’s not too late. Tanzania can reverse this blunder. It can consult stakeholders, rework the policy, and align with the Common Market. Doing so will prove it’s a regional leader — not a regional liability.

EAC Secretariat must not stay silent. This is not a “domestic issue.” It’s an existential threat to regional integration. The Secretariat should summon Tanzania, demand explanations, and use dispute mechanisms to defend the Protocol.

Civil society must also speak up. Regional traders, cross-border groups, and youth movements should raise their voices online and offline. We cannot allow fear-driven nationalism to undo decades of progress.

To the Tanzanian government: you are not protecting your country — you are isolating it. You are not creating jobs — you are suffocating potential. You are not asserting sovereignty — you are betraying unity.

This is not leadership; it’s sabotage.

There is still time to course-correct. Integration is messy, but isolation is suicidal. Tanzania must choose: does it want to be a leader in East Africa’s rise or the anchor that drowns us all?

EAC citizens deserve better. They deserve governments that believe in collaboration, not competition. In openness, not paranoia. In unity, not walls.

Tanzania’s ban on non-citizen business activity is not just wrong — it is dangerous, short-sighted, and un-African.

It must be challenged. It must be resisted. And it must be repealed. For the sake of trade, trust, and tomorrow.

If Tanzania continues on this path, it will not just kill the dream of East African integration. It will bury it.

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