The Committee Chairperson, Jacob Richards Opolot, the Pallisa County MP noted with concern the poor state of toilets at the university as brought to the attention of the committee by students recently.
The Education Committee of parliament has
grilled Makerere University officials over the poor state of sanitary
facilities at the university.
The university officials led by the Vice Chancellor
Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe had appeared before the committee to present their
budget estimates for the 2019/2020 financial year.
The university has been allocated Shillings 316.5 billion for
the next financial year up from the Shillings 269 billion this financial year.
The
Committee Chairperson, Jacob Richards Opolot, the Pallisa County MP noted with
concern the poor state of toilets at the university as brought to the attention
of the committee by students recently.
Opolot observed that the issue of the poor
state of toilets at the university has been coming up before his committee since
the Ninth Parliament.
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Nathan Itungo , the Kasahari South MP also raised queries
about the poor state of toilets in the university.
In his
response, Makerere University Secretary, Charles Barugahare, said they
requested for Shillings 1.5 billion to work on the toilets in the last
financial year but government allocated Shillings 1.5 billion to carter for all university renovations.
He explained that as a result, they only worked
on toilets in four out of the 12 halls of residence in the university. These include
Nsibimba, Mitchel, University and Livingstone halls.
.
Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Barnabas
Nawangwe said that they have been conducting regular maintenance of the toilets
over the years.
He noted that they were looking at doing the same in all the
other halls of residence and academic buildings in the coming financial years.
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The poor state of the toilets over the years is partly
responsible for the student strikes at the university.
The issue was also
raised by the Social Service committee in 2012, which accused the university
leadership of neglecting the welfare of students.
Joy Aliba
Freelancer