With nearly 40 years as President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is the only East African Head of State who was in power when the community sailed 25 years ago.
His fellow founding presidents in the revived East African Community who took part in the launching the bloc in 1999 are all dead at the moment.
But again, both Benjamin Mkapa and Daniel Moi retired from presidency a few years after the sailing of the East African Community, 25 years ago.
The East African Community, an eight member states regional bloc which is being pivoted from Arusha, is hitting its 25th year milestone on the last day of November 2024.
However, the silver jubilee celebrations to that effect will continue for seven months until June 2025.
In sync with marking the occasion, Presidents of the eight EAC member states, including Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, are doubling the event with their ordinary Heads of State Summit at the seat of the Community in the Northern Tanzania City.
The President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni reported to be 80 years old now, is the only head of state who was in power when the East African Community was being endorsed in November 1999.
The ceremony to launch the EAC took place at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium in Arusha.
It was a rain-drenched afternoon event which also saw the signing of the EAC Treaty, whose original contents, according to observers, should also be long overdue now.
The second coming of the East African Community (EAC) was launched 25 years ago, starting out as a three-member state bloc, just like its predecessor, comprising Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The process to establish the current community officially started with the public ceremony to introduce the East African Cooperation an event which was also held at the Arusha stadium in 1996.
Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, one of the founding fathers of the original EAC (which collapsed in 1977) was present during the 1996 event. He died in October 1999 just a month before the new community was hatched.
The Heads of State in attendance during the ceremony were Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania, Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni from Uganda.
President Moi retired three years later in 2002 leaving the seat to Emilio Mwai Kibaki.
President Benjamin Mkapa also stepped down in 2005 and got replaced by Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.
Mwai Kibaki was also to retire in 2012 and was replaced by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Kenyatta completed his ten-year term and left leadership in 2022 leaving the Nairobi state house to the current Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto.
In Tanzania, President Jakaya Kiwete retired in 2015 leaving the mantle to Dr John Pombe Magufuli, who unfortunately died in 2021 and was replaced by Samia Suluhu Hassan, who hosts the 25th Anniversary in November 2024.
And between 1999 and 2024 more member states have joined the East African Community.
The first to be included were the two neighbors, Rwanda and Burundi that joined in 2007, then later South Sudan entering in 2016, DR Congo accepted in 2022 and Somalia which entered into EAC in 2024.
Heads of state have been frequently changing in all the original member-states of Kenya and Tanzania but with Uganda, it is Museveni who is still calling the shots.
The Ugandan leader, a former resident of Moshi, in Kilimanjaro region, has been occupying the Entebbe State House for 38 years now since ascending to power in 1986.