Students’ leaders and Makerere University top management are set to meet with on Monday to find a common ground over the stalemate resulting from the 15 per cent tuition increment. The war started on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 and has seen more than 150 students arrested.
According to an invitation letter sent out by first Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academics, Professor Umar Kakumba to Makerere University Guild Presiden Julius Kateregga, the meeting that will sit in the Senior Common Room in the afternoon will discuss a way forward following the unrest at the university.
Since last week, students have been protesting a cumulative increment of tuition and functional fees by 15 percent which is being implemented as part of a policy, passed by the University Council in June 2018.
During the week-long students protest, hundreds of students were arrested by the military and police, something that attracted too much criticism for the security forces especially from students and members of the public, especially opposition leaders. It is alleged that security officers broke into student rooms in halls of residences vandalized property and brutalized students.
According to Professor Kakumba, the unrest disrupted teaching and learning in a few colleges between Tuesday, 22 October 2019 and Friday, 25 October 2019.
The guild President Kateregga has tabled four demands that the students want the university administration to address, which include the immediate reinstatement of suspended students, revocation of the warning letters, suspension of the cumulative 15 per cent tuition and functional fees increment policy, the de-gazettement of the Students Guild Electoral Reforms/Regulations and the immediate improvement of sanitation facilities in the Halls of Residence.
Kateregga argues that on Oct 23, 2019, at about 6:30 pm, security lights and security Cameras were deliberately switched off On-Campus before the security officers raided student’s residences. He accuses a top Administrator and the Personal Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor for giving security green light to descend on students at Mary Stuart and Lumumba Halls of residences.
He also accuses the university administration of de-legitimizing the student’s demands by referring to them as hooligans.
