The calls comes just days after armed military officers stormed Lumumba Hall, one of the largest male students’ residences in Makerere University and, according to media reports, broke into 60 rooms, smashed students’ properties and forced them to seek refuge outside the university.
A section of Members of
Parliament has demanded the resignation of Makerere University Vice
Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe following a protracted student strike
and subsequent brutal arrests of students.
The call was made by MPs; Paul Mwiru, James Acidri, Latif Ssebaggala, Muwanga Kivumbi, Florence Namayanja, Barnabas Tinkasimire, and Gerald Karuhanga during a press conference at Parliament today.
The calls comes just days after armed military officers stormed Lumumba Hall, one of the largest male students’ residences in Makerere University and, according to media reports, broke into 60 rooms, smashed students’ properties and forced them to seek refuge outside the university.
The raid on the Hall happened as the students’ protest against a 15 per cent tuition increment, which is implemented as part of a policy which was passed by the University Council in June 2018 entered the fourth day.
The legislators say that the developements at Makerere today, are an indictment to the leadership of Barnabas Nawangwe.
“The cry of the students
on the cumulative increment of school fees is a real cry. It reflects what is
happening in Uganda. The students are simply trying to express the poverty situation
they live in because they know it is a reality, they will not be able to afford
this tuition,” Maracha East MP James Acidri said.
He said that everybody
in Uganda has a right to quality education and if the University administration
brings a policy that is exclusive and resisted but forces its way through the
army, then it is an indictment to the Institution’s leadership.
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MP Karuhanga described
the events at Makerere University as exceedingly disturbing and embarrassing to
the government. He wondered why the government responded with military force
against students protesting with only placards.
“Students have a disagreement
over tuition increment, they come out with placards. The best you can do as a government
is to come with military men, with tanks, brutalize, torture, treat them in the
most inhumane an degrading manner,” Karuhanga said.
He cautioned the government against torturing, threatening and abusing the rights of Ugandans.
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Bukoto East MP Florence
Namayanja said that the violation of student’s rights especially the attack on
female students was an attack on all women in the country that cannot go
unnoticed and with no explanation.
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Buyaga West MP Barnabas
Tinkasimiire questioned why
the army invaded student halls of residence and hostels in the night
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Kawempe North MP Latif
Ssebaggala said that the greatest enemies of Uganda are the people who brutalize
others which he described as a great crime against humanity. He and his colleagues
gave government an ultimatum of one day for the army to vacate the University
premises and also release the students that have been arrested.
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Butambala County MP
Muwanga Kivumbi and Jinja Municipality East MP Paul Mwiru said that the several
human rights violations on Ugandans were going down in the history and that
Ugandans will never forget them. Mwiru said that they had been allocated space
on the Order Paper for the entire Parliament to debate the situation at
Makerere on Wednesday next week.
