Arusha-Pan Africanists under the umbrella of Africa Rising have tasked the African Union and heads of its member states, to think of re-amending all policies hindering Africans from traveling to fellow African countries.
The Pan Africanists including activists, CSOs, and Pan African movement members who are gathered in Arusha, Tanzania for a three-day conference, say it’s not worthy for an African to be blocked to enter another African country due to border demarcation drawn by the whites.
Dr. Kumi Naidoo, the founding chair of Africa Rising, and Richard Ssewakiryanga, the former NGO forum Uganda Executive Director, speaking to the media at MS Training Center for Development Cooperation (TCDC) in Arusha, said that the matter of restrictions at border points must be revised immediately.
Meanwhile, Makena Mwobobai, the Executive Director of the Training Center for Development Cooperation, which hosted this assembly, challenged Africans to improve measures to manage their challenges without running to whites always.
Activist Habib Buwembo is a victim of the matter having been blocked from crossing the Namanga Kenya-Tanzanian border over moving documents yet he had Uganda’s national ID and migration travel pass.
While testifying to journalists, Buwembo said he was detained for over four hours at the border point yet the two countries where he was detained are both member states of the East African Community.
Claire Namara, a Kyambogo University student and activist, and John Mbaziira, the former Kyambogo University guild president who also doubles as the student’s activists in the assembly, noted that some African leaders are not focusing on the matters that affect their citizens.
Meanwhile, Haldi Yakubu, the coordinator of the assembly notes that Africans need to mind matters that drive them ahead by themselves not only being driven by theories of the Europeans since they are one.
He noted that revising border point policies entry doesn’t mean that Africans should not have passports and national IDs but removing some restrictions that may fail one to travel mostly during emergency times.
“I wanted to travel to Cameroon for a conference of only two days, and it’s a three hours journey, but I was told to first have a visa three weeks before the traveling date, yet I had received the invitation two weeks ahead of the conference day, what’s that now in our Africa?”, Yakubu wondered.
The three-day conference which commenced on Monday 29th August and ends on Wednesday 31st August is discussing ways how to make Africa great.
