Three's a Crowd

Not so long ago, the three former British East African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were talking ambitiously of joining together in political federation. There was easy agreement to maintain the joint rail, air and postal services handed down by the British, and all three nations continued using the East African shilling as the common currency. A common market was developed, with a Central Legislative Assembly to govern it. Last year the three good neighbors even agreed to divvy up future industrial development equally among them.

Short Cut. Suddenly, however, the partnership threatens to fall apart--largely over a convoy of eleven heavy trucks. The trucks, operated by the Uganda army, ran into a police ambush on a lonely bush road in southwestern Kenya. Their cargo was hardly of the common-market variety: 75 tons of Chinese weapons, which they were convoying from Tanzania to Uganda. What were they doing in Kenya? Taking a short cut, said the convoy commander, and besides, the direct road between Tanzania and Uganda was too muddy.

In Nairobi, Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta found the whole affair too muddy--especially in view of police reports that an even larger convoy had probably traveled earlier over the same road. Kenyatta, who recently refused a shipload of Russian arms for his own army, ordered the convoy confiscated, arrested its 47-man escort on charges of arms smuggling.

No Games. That brought an urgent telephone call from Uganda Internal Affairs Minister Felix Onama, who said it had all been an unfortunate mistake, demanded his convoy back. Kenyatta was in no mood to play games. After an emergency Cabinet meeting, he delivered a thinly veiled denunciation of both Uganda and Tanzania for "an act of criminal folly and a serious violation of Kenya's territorial integrity." When Uganda Premier Milton Obote telephoned to try to smooth things over, Kenyatta refused to speak to him. When a Tanzania spokesman announced airily that "this has nothing to do with us," Kenyatta fired off a diplomatic note holding Tanzania just as guilty as Uganda.

Enraged, Tanzania and Uganda threatened to break up the common market unless Kenyatta handed over the arms, and only a hurried motion for adjournment prevented their delegates from walking out of a Central Legislative Assembly meeting in Nairobi. At week's end Assembly Secretary-General Dunstan Omari was frantically trying to arrange an emergency East African summit conference to repair the damage. His prospects were not improved by the announcement in Dares Salaam that the original owner of the arms, Chinese Communist Premier Chou Enlai, will pay a friendly visit to Tanzania early next month.

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