“I regret to inform you that the university is closed with immediate effect. Handover university property in your custody,” the Makerere University Council chairman Dr.Charles Wana Etyem has announced.
The Makerere University which is Uganda’s main government institution that accommodates over 600 Rwandans pursuing both Bachelors and Masters degree has been closed indefinitely following a lecturers’ and students’ strike for week ago.
This has followed the misunderstandings that failed to reach a clear resolution during the meeting by the management and lecturers today, a source at the scene told igihe.com
“During the assembly, lecturers failed to reach a resolution because some were accepting to teach as others denied saying that the management should rectify the situation first,” a source said
The decision was therefore taken that the University closes as lecturers sort out themselves on the issue and the petition was this afternoon taken to the Ugandan Parliament and presented to the Speaker.
Since the semester started, the students have not been receiving lectures following the sit-down strike of their lectures and now students are accusing the University management of denying them the right to education.
Exclusively speaking to Ann Kariza, a Rwandan and a Minister at the School of Economics and Management Makerere University and also an Auditor General of the Makerere University Banyarwanda Students Association (MUBSA) noted, “We fear to go to the campus because when we reach, other students wants us to get involved into the strike and so we have to stay at our hostels. Other Ministers have been calling me saying that we have to go on strike tomorrow and fight for our rights to education,” she said
She added that though the decision has been taken to close the university, students have been tempted to go on strike tomorrow.
The lecturers snubbed appeals from the University management and Council to return to duty prompting the Council chairman Dr. Charles Wana Etyem to announce the closure of the University.
Students were then expected to vacate the premises in the next six hours. “We are going to escort all students out of the University premises. International students will receive their transport refund back home,” Wana said.
“In the meantime, international students, the disabled and those from the College of Health Sciences who were initially studying will be housed in one hall at the University campus.”
The staff is demanding for the swift release of their sh16.7b pension funds from the national insurance corporation (NIC) on top of a salary increment of sh8m for the lowest paid members of the academic staff.
The sh16.7b accumulated between July 1996 and 2005, when the company operated a deposit administration plan (DAP) for the university’s pension scheme.
A recent report by the Auditor General indicates that NIC owes Makerere sh26.9b, twice higher than both the corporation and the university were earlier quoting. However, the lectures and other staff were angered by NIC’s continued claim that it had a balance of only shs3.7b.
Besides, the staff also wants the University Council to stop contributing the 40% to their wage bill.
By press time, efforts to reach Rwandan Mission in Uganda about affected Rwandan students at the university were futile as nobody answered the Phone at the Rwandan High Commission in Kampala.
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