The impasse at Makerere University over the suspension of staff leaders escalated yesterday after the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe added salt to an injury as he called for the indefinite closure of the School of Law, accusing it of fanning the staff strike that is now in its third week. Prof Nawangwe’s recommendation is contained […]
The impasse at Makerere University over the suspension of staff leaders escalated yesterday after the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe added salt to an injury as he called for the indefinite closure of the School of Law, accusing it of fanning the staff strike that is now in its third week.
Prof Nawangwe’s recommendation is contained in a report to the University Council led by Lorna Magara. Magara had asked the Vice-Chancellor to brief the university management about the administrators’ actions taken to resolve the impasse between management and staff that started on January 19 following the suspension of the chairperson of the academic staff association (Muasa), Dr Deus Kamunyu.
In his presentation at the emergency council meeting, Prof Nawangwe claimed that whereas all other colleges have since resumed teaching, the School of Law has not, hence calling for its closure for inciting violence at the institution.
Now, Law students at the University have threatened to sue the institution for failure to fulfill its promise of offering education services.
In a press briefing yesterday, the law students said in the suit, they would be seeking for a monetary compensation in billions of shillings for the loss occasioned to them.
“The University Council is put on notice that unless a resolution of this impasse is reached by close of business on Friday February,15 2019, the student community as a whole will file a representative suit against the university for breach of contract and violation of the right to education, leaving it upon the university to seek indemnification from the staff associations if they so wish, ”said Kenneth Kotura Kiapi, the law students president.
“Once this action is filed, we will not be willing to withdraw it without a settlement that involves reasonable compensation. We therefore strongly impress upon you the gravity of this impending suit and the detrimental liability that will flow from it.”
Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof.Barnabas Nawangwe on Monday said he is not aware of the ongoing strike at the university despite a declaration by the staff to go full blast with their industrial action.
“This circular serves to inform all the stakeholders, particularly the members of staff and students, which Makerere University is open and will remain open for normal business. All staff, who are carrying on with their official business are encouraged to continue doing so without intimidation,”Prof.Nawangwe said on Monday.
However, the law students said it is wrong for the university administration to claim that lectures are ongoing within the entire university save for the School of Law.
They said the notion is false and borders on being divisive adding that the university is under a “de facto” shut down.
“Furthermore, the claim that students are the ones voluntarily boycotting class is equally false. These falsities, which have so far been believed by the general public, have largely contributed to the perpetuation of the present stalemate, to our detriment,”Kiapi said.
“The university is under a de facto shutdown and all claims that the situation is normal, circulating within the media, are absolutely untrue and possibly the product of a propaganda campaign.”
They said that of the 10 colleges at Makerere, only two(College of Health Sciences and the College of Engineering Art & Design) are currently having lectures, a thing they said confirms a partial shutdown of the university.
The law students however urged that the impasse between lecturers and the university management should be solved so that lectures resume at Makerere.
Meanwhile, Nawangwe continues to stick to his guns, saying all suspended staff should undergo the due disciplinary process and be found innocent instead of protesting.
Asides from Kamunyu others on suspension include; the Bennet Magara; the Chairperson of Makerere Administrative Staff Association and his General Secretary, Joseph Kalema. They were accused of insubordination, alleged indiscipline and inciting staff.
“All Colleges have since resumed full teaching including with the exception of the School of Law where no teaching has been reported. The continued defiance by the School of Law means that the students will not be taught for a fourth week running and this is likely to lead to a deterioration of discipline among the students with unforeseen consequences,” his report reads in part
“Given the position taken by the School of Law, to defy authority and incite the rest of the University to follow their bad example, it is recommended that the School of Law be closed indefinitely. The staff should be required to hand over University property and the students advised to return home and await further instructions,” he adds.
Prof Nawangwe noted that despite management forming a committee to investigate the grounds under which Dr Kamunyu and others were suspended, executives of staff associations, using the advice of Law school, want an unconditional lifting of the suspension of Dr Kamunyu as a condition for calling the General Assembly to lift the purported strike.
This, he said, is not right.
“The Management, on the other hand, maintains, and rightly so, that such an action would set a very bad precedent of impunity. It would be possible in future for someone to do wrong but just because they can mobilise others, no disciplinary action would be taken. This would greatly undermine disciplinary powers of Management as well as set a wrong future precedence. Unconditional lifting is also not provided for in the Human Resources Manual of the University and is thus illegal and unlawful,” Prof Nawangwe adds.
He also indicates that students are being mobilized by Executives of Staff Associations to join them and put pressure on Management to unconditionally reinstate Dr Kamunyu.
