Civil society faces uphill climb in East Africa’s budding oil economies

In recent years, East Africa has captured the spotlight of the African oil scene. Since Uganda struck oil in 2006, and Kenya followed up with its own discoveries six years later, observers have hyped up a race between the regional neighbours over which could produce oil first.

At the same time, in a bid to preempt the kind of dysfunction oil wealth has engendered in countries such as Nigeria and Angola, civil society groups are pushing for frameworks on transparency and accountability to be in place before the taps are turned on.