To ensure an informed East African population and ensure the region’s citizens make informed decisions on integration and its benefits

To ensure a consistent, objective and balanced information flow in the East African Community (EAC) partner states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Team work, transparency and professionalism

EANA aims to promote PEACE and STABILITY for an INTEGRATED EAC in a fair and balanced manner.

The East African News Agency (EANA) is a not-for-profit media and communications agency, committed to boosting the efforts of the East African Community (EAC) to widen information dissemination of the regional bloc’s activities and programmes, targeting 140 million East Africans so as to help them make informed decisions regarding the region’s integration efforts.

EANA objectively and transparently disseminates news, features and analysis daily, for free, to media houses across Eastern Africa, academia, research institutions, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, diplomatic missions, donor communities, schools and colleges as well as individuals with an interest in the East African Community (EAC).

EANA’s media products are currently in English and Kiswahili and plans are underway to include French so as to cater for French speakers and readers in the region. Plans are also afoot to introduce weekly radio programmes/summaries.

The establishment of EANA was motivated by the region’s lack of vigorous coverage/information/analysis of EAC activities; EANA is modelled along the lines of Hirondelle(Switzerland) and Internews (American), international NGO news agencies which successfully and exclusively covered the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), trying key suspects of the 1994 genocide.

The founders of EANA have more than a decade of journalistic experience on a regional and international level.

The five EAC partner states– Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda – have already moved to the second stage of the integration, with a Common Market having been established in July 2010, raising the demand for reliable, accurate and timely information even higher.

The first stage of EAC’s integration was the Customs Union, which came into force on 1 July 2005. Currently, the EAC is on track to launch its third phase of integration – a Monetary Union – scheduled for 2012. The EAC ultimately aims to achieve a political federation of East Africa in the near future.

Although EANA was launched to exclusively cover EAC’s integration process, the news agency does not underrate contributions of other media houses and other committed East African journalists. The fact remains that much more needs to be done in the coverage of the EAC; in a consistent and professional manner.