East African Federation

The East African Federation (Swahili: Shirikisho la Afrika Mashariki) is a proposed political union of the eight sovereign states of the East African Community in the African Great Lakes region – Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Somalia and Uganda – as a single federated sovereign state. The idea of this federation has existed since the early 1960s but has not yet come to fruition for several reasons. In September 2018, a committee was formed to begin the process of drafting a regional constitution, and a draft constitution for the confederation was set to be written by the end of 2021 with its implementation by 2023. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted plans to draft and implement a constitution. On 20 March 2023, the EAC announced that the drafting process would resume in May of that year in Kenya.

The East African Federation has not yet been established, but many steps have been taken to advance this eventual goal. Institutions and governing bodies already exist for the eventual union of these nations, with representatives from all of the related nations working together towards this common goal.