Collective Identity among the Youth in the EAC: The Role of the East African Community East African Community Youth Ambassadors’ Platform

Collective identity, institutions, and culture are the most analysed social structures in studying regional integration. On the other hand, instruments such as culture, media, language, youth and education are crucial for homogenisation of regional groupings and instilling collective identity in regional communities. This paper asses the role of the East African Community Youth Ambassadors Platform (EACYAP) in promoting a collective regional identity among young people in Tanzania and Kenya from the year 2012 - 2018. The paper reviews different literature on collective identity and on how the youth groupings are relevant to integration and identity. The study also evaluates the quality of institutionalization of the East African Community Youth Ambassadors Platform by looking at the existing institutional and policy frameworks as well as documenting the experiences of the EAC Youth Ambassadors in promoting collective regional identity among their peers. Lastly the paper gives recommendations for making the platform more effective in playing its role. The study employed a mixed method for data collection, analysis and interpretation. Respondents were drawn from the EAC youth ambassadors from Tanzania and Kenya were the Universal set of ambassadors was taken, also officials from the EAC secretariat and Nyerere Centre for Peace Research were interviewed and their responses recorded. The study found out that the EACYAP has done a lot of activities and reached thousands of university students in the region. However, the platform has divorced the people centeredness of the EAC as it involves elites only and forgets the youth out of the education system. The study also found that, the EACYAP is characterized by too much intra-cohort collaboration with less inter chapter collaboration which is not positive for collective identity creation. The study recommends institutionalization of the EACYAP with a clear leadership structure and action plan as well as involvement of the youth outside of the academic institutions for making the platform more effective in playing its role. Key Words: Collective identity, East African Community, East African Community Youth Ambassadors’ Platform, Youth