Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has doubled down on his call for unified maritime security efforts among the East African Community (EAC). The long-serving head of state did not just make the call but also gave reasons why such an arrangement would be a game-changer for the eight member states.
Speaking to military officers at the Senior Command and Staff College in Kimaka, Uganda, on 17 June 2026, the 81-year-old argued that managing maritime security should be a collective responsibility for all countries with maritime borders, whether directly or indirectly involved. In defence of his proposal, he insisted that a maritime and military corporation is the next frontier for the East African Community after economic integration.
According to President Museveni, who is serving his seventh consecutive term, the need for integration is supported by the idea that current borders have led to the isolation of African countries, preventing them from having a meaningful impact on global affairs. He also believes that his proposal represents a clear pathway toward an eventual East African Federation, an idea he has promoted on several occasions.
Nonetheless, Museveni’s proposal has been highly contested by a section of citizens. Critics have acknowledged the complexity of the proposed program, despite the president’s designation of maritime security as a strategic priority.
Why Is Museveni Advocating East Africa’s Naval Integration?
While the idea of maritime security may only vaguely describe what President Museveni envisions, a more specific objective of establishing a jointly managed naval force may be the closest it gets to his vision. In his November 2025 address to journalists at the Mayuge State Lodge in the Busoga region, the powerful leader detailed the benefits of the joint naval force.
He stated that having military dominance in the region could only be achieved if all the countries are organised under one significantly powerful naval force. Museveni also reiterated that similar efforts can be directed towards the forces on land, air and space.
Museveni recognised the fact that Uganda and other landlocked states depended on other countries to access international waterways, hence necessitating their involvement. In the same breath, he hailed the efforts of Tanzania’s founding leaders for abolishing the borders between the former Tanganyika and Zanzibar and integrating them into the current Republic of Tanzania. He also argued that East African countries would be more adequately prepared to rebuff an invasion if they threw all their weight behind one naval force and guarded the maritime borders together.
When pressed for answers on what potential or imminent dangers the community needed to prepare for, Museveni borrowed a leaf from the Libyan civil war, stating that the Northern Sahel country was targeted because of its isolation by colonial boundaries.
“Who can rescue Africa now? The other time Libya was attacked by foreigners, and we were just here looking,” said Museveni.
The head of state appeared to suggest that the current state of geopolitics calls for every nation in the world to raise their guard and prepare for any eventuality. According to Museveni, the best chance for East Africa to survive lies in their willingness to pull in the same direction.
Can a Unified East African Naval Force Improve Regional Security?
Those who support Museveni’s proposal have cited the recurring incidents of piracy and smuggling of arms through the porous coastline, which have been in the news several times. The East African Herald has listed trans maritime crime as one of the leading factors fostering political instability in the region. Piracy has been a major concern along the Somalia coastline as pirates target materials in transit and divert them to alleviate the crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Moreover, the porous borders and blind spots created as a result of insufficient marine guarding allow illegal entry of drugs and firearms into the region. UN Africa Renewal has reported a resurgence of armed robbery, piracy, and smuggling of narcotics across the East African maritime borders in recent years. With all these happening, perhaps the proposal by Museveni is rightly placed and timely.
If the inland states are to be integrated into the multi-national marine security program, how would they be involved? President Museveni has jumped to the defence of his nation’s involvement in the military management, dismissing the claims that landlocked countries would not have a say in the arrangement. He acknowledged that the integration would require a clear chain of command from a central leader as opposed to each country managing its coastline individually. That way, even the landlocked countries would influence the decisions of the joint naval force.
Additionally, the resources would be pulled to give the marine security a more sufficient budget. Unified marine security would allow the countries not in control of the seaways to impact how they are managed, as the effects of improper management ripple to the farthest end of the shoreline.
Are EAC Heads of State Backing Museveni?
While the proposal looks feasible on paper, the major hurdle would be the willingness of member states to operate under a shared command in the unified naval force. Several countries have weighed in on the proposal by Museveni with a mixed bag of responses showing a lack of alignment. Despite the rallying call, most countries have practised restraint, prioritising their sovereignty and the independence of their military over the call for regional integration.
Countries like Kenya and Tanzania have repeatedly prioritised a domestic approach to national security, throwing Museveni’s proposal into jeopardy. As it stands, the EAC prefers to establish temporary protocols during shared missions which involve multiple states without the countries having to surrender autonomous control of their military structures. Analysts have cited constitutional differences, geopolitical alignment and divergence of national interests as the major bottlenecks hindering successful regional integration.
Key Reforms Needed for a Unified East African Navy
If the EAC is to establish the unified navy as proposed by Museveni, several changes will have to be made to the constitutions and institutional structures of the member states, including harmonising defence institutions in various countries to ensure a binding agreement that lasts beyond temporary missions. To begin with, most countries in the region consider the head of state as the Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces, a provision that would need to be abolished should a regional supreme commander be appointed.
This also means that the supremacy of laws would shift, with regional laws superseding national laws. All the governing constitutions in various member states would consequently become inferior to the regional laws. The regional supreme commander would be required to standardise the penal codes in the region while coordinating the deployment laws.
Under the common supreme commander, clear deployment rules would need to exist to ensure that the forces are working under a unified command towards the same mission. To ensure alignment, several adjustments in funding, command and deployment rules would need to be made. Funding would be the first issue to address. Since the community is already enjoying economic integration, infrastructure is in place for the collection of levies, which would be channelled to a central defence fund. All budgetary needs of the forces would be taken from the defence fund as authorised by the Supreme Commander. Every country would contribute to the fund proportionately to its gross domestic product.
The forces would be commanded from a central cross-national military body overseen by the Supreme Commander. Analysts have suggested that should the regional chief of defence position be institutionalised, the office holder will have to come from all the member states and the seat would only be held for a specified period of time to ensure fairness. The forces deployed will also have to reflect the different nationalities involved in the mission. Unifying the codes of communication within the ranks and during operations will also help in the ease of deployment.
It remains contested whether the joint regional naval force would significantly improve regional security and protection of regional infrastructure as compared to how it is done today. While Museveni strongly believes in the power of unified forces, critics have brought forth arguments to poke holes in the feasibility and success of the integration.
With enhanced security and joint efforts, infrastructure such as ports, energy projects and communication networks would enjoy round-the-clock security since the forces would be better equipped than those of a single nation. The maritime borders would be better controlled, protecting regional assets from external invasion even during geopolitical unrest.
The Garrison security group has established that critical assets such as offshore power projects are at a higher risk of attack in the event of an invasion, recommending a regional program to defend them. Security analyst ISS (Information Systems Security) has listed ports like Lamu among those that would benefit from the unified force of a regional navy owing to their location.
Borderless East African Community
In Museveni’s proposed East African Federation, he advanced several ideas, some of which have been implemented. The pillars that anchor the federation include a customs union that lifts travel restrictions between member states, a common market for all locally produced goods, a common currency, and a common political federation under a central government.
The ideas that Museveni brought forth were taken up for deliberation by member states; the least feasible of them is the formation of a political federation that would require a military alignment. Regional integration of the military would pave the way for the transition to a federal state under one leadership. Museveni has repeatedly dismissed the essence of existing colonial boundaries while teasing the one-nation idea.
Picturing the complete state of a unified federation is, however, premature because there are still concerns from the member states that need to be addressed. The three member states, Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia, who have for the longest time enjoyed possession of waterways, would not be particularly keen about an arrangement that takes away their territorial waters. Since the onset of the proposal, which has been subject to discussion on various platforms, many citizens have expressed unwillingness to let go of their territorial waters.
Kenya, Somalia territorial dispute
It should be noted that Kenya and Somalia have been locked in a territorial dispute over the borders of the Indian Ocean. Controlling the waterways also means controlling the businesses that pass through the territorial waters. The Kenya Maritime Authority reports that they flag in up to 10 cargo ships per day through the Kenyan waters, a lucrative economic hub that no country would want to relinquish.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reports that up to 90% of deep-water security along the Indian Ocean comes from foreign countries like the US, exposing a glaring incapacity of the EAC to protect its own waterways. The lack of capacity is attributed to a limited budget and resources for individual member states to train and deploy enough security in the Western Indian Ocean. The ECA report also documents a UN budget of $1.7 billion in foreign aid to keep security on the Western Indian Ocean. It calls for a stronger unified effort to dig the EAC out of foreign aid and secure its own resources.
There are many multinational defence corporations that the EAC can learn from to avoid similar pitfalls should they choose to pursue the recommendations. The unified operations by West African bloc ECOWAS, for instance, have revealed that power imbalance between member states can sink the ship before it sets sail. The fallout in the Sahel can also offer a lesson in avoiding conflicting geopolitical and ideological alignment, as it can lead to fracture of the defence corporation. Finally, SADC teaches EAC to align military interventions with a clear political stance.
Why East Africa’s Naval Integration May Not Happen Soon
Considering all the layers of complexity that need navigation before embarking on the journey of a unified EAC navy, President Museveni’s proposal may be a bit too soon. Divergence of political ideologies and geopolitical allegiance among member states pokes a hole right at the heart of the corporation.
The national interests of individual states also never seem to meet, as most member countries prefer to keep their sovereignty rather than trade off their military independence. This proposal could be the answer to the regional instability that is plaguing the EAC; however, the implementation requires proper groundwork before it can be feasible.
Legal, institutional, and structural alignment need to be incorporated at the national level before establishing the unified navy under one central defence secretary. Lessons from other regional security blocs should be scrutinised to avoid falling flat.
