The contributions of the East African Community integration to good governance in Uganda
| dc.contributor.author | Gabriel Nyirinka | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-13T08:48:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-13T08:48:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2026-05-13 | |
| dc.description | Undergraduate | |
| dc.description.abstract | This research aimed at evaluating the influence of EAC integration on good governance in Uganda over the decade (2016-2026) which is the period of greatest enlargement of the Community and the implementation of the Seventh EAC Development Strategy (2026/27- 2030/31). Secondary data collected from East African Court of Justice (EACJ) jurisprudence, institutional and governance documents, peer-reviewed articles and EAC Treaty documents was analysed and a qualitative, desk-based, single‑ case study approach was adopted. Thematic analysis of the data was carried out by Braun and Clarke's 6-phase approach, while the main theory used was intergovernmentalism. The findings show that there has been a real though limited improvement at governance level in Uganda as a result of the integration of EAC but significant work remains. The most visible effects can be seen in the two fields above: Rule of law discourse, with the decisions of the EACJ having provided some normative concepts that are being used in the advocacy of law domestically; and Economic governance transparency, with the implementation of the Common Market Protocol, leading to incremental gains in customs and investment facilitation. There is limited institutional capacity built in Uganda's Inspectorate of Government as a result of regional cooperation on anti‑ corruption. In 2025 however, Uganda's ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) dropped from 26 to 25 out of 100, indicating that there have been no structural governance changes at the EAC level. This limited impact can be attributed to five inter-related problems of sovereignty sensitivities that result in the selective domestication of regional norms, insufficient institutional capacity and resources, governance heterogeneity brought by the rapid enlargement of EAC, weak enforcement mechanisms and Uganda's domestic political economy underpinned by executive dominance and patronage networks. The study finds that the Ugandan state is intergovernmental and this is a good explanatory factor for the selective compliance. It suggests a gradual path towards governance compliance in the EAC, the development of a national domestication agenda for governance frameworks and better civil society and development partner engagement with governance aspects of the Seventh Development Strategy. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12311/3467 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Uganda Christian University | |
| dc.title | The contributions of the East African Community integration to good governance in Uganda | |
| dc.type | Dissertation |