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Military at Makerere

Female students face off with the army at Makerere University.

The students’ claim has been dismissed by the university administration, the security forces, and the government. The Minister of Education, Janet Museveni, said in a statement that the students are being paid by foreign funders to use the fees increment as an excuse to stage the strike so as to portray the government in bad light to the rest of the world. The First Lady said the 15% tuition increment was agreed by students in 2018.

“The political opposition in this country – who are well funded ‘somehow’ by some ‘unknown sources’ – find it useful to pay unemployed young people to riot wherever and whenever they believe they see a viable opportunity,” she wrote.

The allegation that the student anger is politically driven is not new. It has persisted since the tuition policy was passed by the University Council in July 2018 and mention of a strike first occurred in November 2018.

Prof. Eria Hisali, who was the acting Vice Chancellor at the time, wrote to the police over the threat of a students’ strike. He said prominent political forces in Uganda were plotting an insurgency through Makerere University and that political force is the People Power movement led by Kyadondo East MP, Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine.

According to a story in The Observer which researched the issue extensively, Hisali warned the security forces that “history would possibly repeat itself and that the emerging People Power movement would take advantage of the masses at university to overthrow Museveni’s government.”

Military batters lecturer

Following Hisali’s letter, the military deployed almost immediately at the strike-prone university as a “precaution” according to sources.

That was just weeks before the Makerere University Students Guild elections on March 15 were won by Julius Kateregga; a student who during campaigns wore the red beret and overalls; colours of the People Power movement. The NRM government fronted a candidate in the election who lost.

It was also the peak of youth-driven protests in South Africa and Sudan. South Africa faced the “Fees Must Fall” student protests while Alaa Salah; a 22-year old female architecture student became a symbol of women in the protest movement that eventually toppled former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year old grip onto power in Khartoum.

At the time, the NRM government Spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo, said there were Ugandans attempting to copy the Sudanese protesters and end Museveni’s 33 year hold onto power.

Opondo referred to Ugandans who were “imagining the impossible” as “simple minds.” But sources say Ugandan security was put on high alert to sniff out and quell any copycat groups.

Since Makerere University is a known hot bed of opposition political activism in the country, the government quickly deployed the military at the university even if there is a police post attached to the Ivory Tower.

At first, the military deployment looked innocent. But by December, last year, the soldiers’ deployment started to be felt. They started by limiting access to the two chapels at the university; St. Augustine (Catholic) and St. Francis (Anglican).

The clergy of the two churches wrote to the university administration, complaining about the military presence on the university premises. The administration never responded.

The brute force of the military soon extended to the students’ social events. On the night of Feb. 15, 2019, as students gathered for merrymaking at the annual Mitchelex carnival, about 50-baton wielding military police men raided the venue at 11:50pm and ordered the students to disperse them. The students protested. What followed was a violent row and beatings.

The lecturers were not spared.  On the evening of March 18, soldiers beat up Dr. Ronald Luwangula, a senior lecturer at the School of Social Sciences. The soldiers were disbanding students from a guild election rally held at Freedom Square when they pounced on Luwangula who had just finished lecturing. As he moved towards his office, he was ambushed by three soldiers who beat him senseless before security guards attached to a private security group rescued him.

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