This article documents and analyzes the limits of multinational federalism in East Africa and the diffusion of the East Asian model of integration. As the most advanced regional bloc in Africa, the East African Community is ideally suited to test different models of integration and federalism, especially those developed in Asia, and in particular by Malaysia. The article seeks to move beyond traditional explanations of relatively limited impact of external model of integration on African states, and proposes an alternative framework of analysis where external pressures and models are compared with more demanding expectations on the African side. Thus, the main aim of the article is to explore, and to compare, different theoretical perspectives and empirical examples of federalism in the two regions where working patterns of integration does not necessarily follow a Western style of integration (the EU) or federalism (Canada and the US).