The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the withdrawal of the military police from Makerere University, as the students braced themselves for a second week of rioting over fees.
“President Yoweri Museveni has urged stakeholders in Makerere to talk and resolve all issues around fees. He’s spoken to council chair and the guild president today, urging them to meet. He’s ordered the withdrawal of the military police from the university,” said Senior Press Secretary to the President, Don Wanyama, in a tweet. Wanyama added that Museveni had decided that Uganda Police will maintain order from today.
Makerere Guild President Julius Kateregga confirmed President Museveni had weighed in to turn events at the campus.
“Earlier today, I held a phone conversation with President Museveni to brief him on the status quo at the Hill and on the demands of the governed. He had been fed on falsehoods by some elements of University Management. He instructed that University Council engages the Student Leadership, which they have heeded to. In a few minutes, the student leadership will be engaging Council,” Kateregga said on facebook.
The students are demanding the unconditional reinstatement of all suspended students and halt to the cumulative 15% tuition fees increment structure.
“Our demands are clear and we shall pronounce to the students body the outcome and way forward from the Engagement.”
The President’s decision to have all sides back on the table comes hours after First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni had accused students of being used by political actors to cause chaos.
Protests have paralyzed business at Makerere University, where students are protesting a policy that sanctioned a 15% increment on tuition and functional fees, over the next five years.
But what had started as a peaceful female students’ protests, turned ugly after UPDF and police personnel were seen breaking into halls of residence, where a number of students were picked up and clobbered.
Although initial media reports put the figure of arrested students in a five days’ protest at 60, Enanga said they detained only 39 students. Of these, Enanga said seven were non-students, adding that police is equally investigating their motive in the strike.
But if it were not to terrorize the students, who ordered them (UPDF soldiers) to be there in the first place? Is Makerere University a military barracks where the military police should be deployed to oversee military discipline? In other words, it is high time Mr. Museveni gave Ugandans a break from his leadership style through terror, the abuse of power (misuse of the military), wrongdoing, intimidation and above all brutality.
This is because, it has become apparent that Mr. Museveni perceives every Ugandan as an enemy, who must be treated as such. Otherwise, why would any rational leader deploy a battalion of the military armed for bloodshed in a university?