📷 Mak PhD graduates laud govt for sh30b research fund

Those who were awarded doctorates during Makerere University's 75th graduation ceremony last week have expressed gratitude to the Government for providing a research fund.

The shillings 30 billion, they say, has enabled them to accomplish their academic goals.

University’s PhD community 2022/23 president Dr Gerald Ahabwe Zihembire told New Vision Online on Monday that this fund has greatly propelled scholars to attain academic greatness.

Dr Crispus Kiyonga confirms the PHD of Esther Achola after receiving a doctorate in plant breeding and Biotechnology during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University.

“One of the best things we were able to achieve is the Research Innovations Fund, the annual shillings 30 billion that the Government has put in place was made accessible for the PhD community,” he said.

According to him, Makerere’s PhD students can access this funding and are doing impactful research projects.

He expressed his gratitude towards the government and university administration for availing this fund which has been very beneficial for research.

A PHD graduand celebrates his success after being confirmed during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University.

Ahabwe also advised doctoral students to undertake their research projects and go and serve communities: “Because without service and impact on the communities where we come from, this PhD is not fully utilised. I'm grateful that the university management and government have extended this research funding,” Ahabwe said.

According to Ahabwe, the inaugural beneficiaries were 104 students who were able to receive government funding, but Makerere has well over 600 PhD students.

He was among the recent cohort of graduates. Below are his academic accomplishments and those of his peers.

Gerald AHABWE Zihembire (PhD) in sociology of technology

Ahabwe investigated the dynamics of the utilization of prepayment technology (PPM) and access to safe water in poor urban communities in Kampala, Uganda.

The study, which used a mixed-methods approach, found varying dynamics of the utilization of prepayment technology to access water among the urban poor in Kampala.

The results suggest that the utilization of prepayment technology is dismal with 80% of households having abandoned the technology due to technical failures, lack of accessories and low awareness about prepayment technology.

Where the technology implementation strategy is weak, the technology is likely to flop.

Gerald Zihembire Ahabwe from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences celebrates his success after receiving a PHD in Sociology of Technology during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University on Friday, January 17, 2025.

This study significantly contributes to the understanding that technological innovations for basic social services like water can exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and inequalities if they are implemented without a clear operation and maintenance strategy to inform planning and practice.

There is a need for government to develop a repayment strategy to guide access to critical social sciences such as water. The study was funded by NORHED as well as the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (MakRIF) and was supervised by Dr. Achilles Ssewaya and Dr Dauda Waiswa Batega.

Margaret Nakiwala (PhD) in house mortgage financing

Nakiwala examined urban house developers’ awareness, attitudes, and challenges in accessing mortgage financing in Uganda and bank professionals’ perceptions of mortgage uptake.

The research revealed that the eligibility criteria for mortgages often hinder Ugandans’ access to funding.

The study employed three logistic regression models to examine the impact of house developers’ awareness, attitudes, and challenges on their ability to secure long-term housing loans.

The results showed that these factors significantly influenced loan approval, with statistically significant outcomes.

The challenges model found that mortgage processing fees and the requirement of proof of verifiable income were significant obstacles.

Margaret Nakiwala from CEDAT celebrates her success after achieving a PHD in House Mortage Financing during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University on Friday, January 17, 2025.

The study recommends lowering interest rates, offering customer-tailored loan terms, addressing corruption, and fostering collaboration between government and regulators to improve mortgage access.

It also suggests policy and practical interventions for policymakers, financial institutions, and house developers. The study was funded by Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund, HEED-Africa and was supervised by Assoc. Prof. Stephen Mukiibi Dr Amin Tamale Kiggundu and Assoc. Prof. Anthony Kerali (RIP).

Yosef Sintayehu Jemberie (PhD) in interdisciplinary social studies

FROM NÄGARIT TO NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY: LINEAGES OF POLITICAL MODERNITY IN ETHIOPIA

Jemberie showed that modern state power in Ethiopia emerged in a historical process of change and continuity marked by the colonial transformations of Italian East Africa (1936-1941).

This historical process shows a shift in the form of state power from the premodern right and power of military authorities to issue professionally and provincially specific commands by drumbeats to the modern juridical power of a national sovereign body to make or suspend state laws in an official gazette.

Yosef Sintayehu from CHUSS celebrates his success after receiving a PHD in Interdisciplinary social studies during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University on Friday, January 17, 2025.

He also shows that the violent political contestations witnessed in Ethiopia since 1942 can be conceived as a postcolonial derivative dialectic between, on the one hand, state power that represents the sovereign national majority defined in terms of “civic,” “class,” cultural or ethnic markers, and, on the other hand, minority resistance emanating from groups rendered political minorities through exclusion from the defined sovereign national majority.

Anita Atwijuka (PhD) in social studies

TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND STATE POWER: CULTURALIST CONTESTATIONS IN BUGANDA AND ANKOLE

Atwijuka examined the decolonial potential of society-based campaigns seeking to preserve culture through the creation of kingdoms and skeletal kingdoms in contemporary Uganda.

In both the 2009 (Buganda) riots and the 2019 (Ankole) protests, Uganda experienced incidents that were seen as direct assaults on the cultures of the peoples of these places. The study approached both as manifestations of nationalism from below at the heart of Uganda’s history and politics.

The study argues that the campaigns for the creation of traditional institutions fuel the politicisation of ethnic differences in the sense that they establish ancestry and cultural identity as the basis for political rights in a specific kingdom.

Anitah Atwijuka from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences celebrates her success after receiving a PHD in social studies during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University on Friday, January 17, 2025.

Culturalist contestations are derivative of the colonial fashioning of identity- tribalist logic of governance.

Deploying an interdisciplinary approach that integrates methods of historical, political and anthropological studies, the thesis overcomes the conceptual and methodological narrowness that defines the state-centric understanding of nationalism prevalent in African scholarship.

The study was sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York and Norhed and was supervised by Dr Yahya Sseremba, Dr Joseph Kasule and Dr Andrea Cassatella.

Samuel Chikwero Nyasha (PhD) in history

Chikowero carried out a historical exploration of the regulation of uroyi—what came to be translated as “witchcraft” in Africa.

The study specifically examines the 1899 Witchcraft Suppression Act (WSA) which was inadequately and ambiguously framed, to demonstrate how the colonialists interfered with African spiritualities.

By examining the competing realities between Africans and the British colonialists, this study foregrounds uroyi as a concept of defiance to colonial epistemic and physical violence aimed at subverting African cosmologies.

Samuel Chikowero Nyeso from CHUSS celebrates his success after receiving a PHD in History a study about witchcraft in Zimbabwe during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University on Friday, January 17, 2025.

The study employs qualitative research methodology, making use of local knowledge gathered through interviews and participant observation.

Analysing Zimbabwe knowledge systems and mediums of cultural expressions, such as proverbs and sacred places like Gandavaroyi and Chavaroyi, brought fascinating evidence which suggested that uroyi, as understood by Madzimbabwe, is not only a belief but also a socially constructed knowledge.

Archival sources, including newspapers, Legislative Council Debates, records of court cases, and internal correspondences were particularly useful. The study was funded by Gerda Henkel Stiftung and was supervised by Dr Edgar Curtis Taylor and Dr Simon Peter Rutabajuuka.

Esther Achola (PhD) in plant breeding and biotechnology

Achola sought to identify phenotypic resistance to Groundnut Rosette Disease (GRD), yield in a diverse GINA core collection and elucidate the genomics of resistance to GRD through genome-wide association studies, haplotype analysis and linkage mapping.

The study identified six phenotypically resistant and high-yielding genotypes from Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.

The study went on to map GRD resistance on chromosomes A04, B04 and B08 and identify putative genes beneficial in disease resistance and RNA silencing in viruses.

Through haplotype analysis, she identified five haplotypes that were significant with GRD resistance on chromosomes A04 and B08. Two genotypes, from Uganda possessed all five haplotypes.

Esther Achola celebrates her success with her family after achieving a doctorate of philosophy during the final session of the 75th graduation ceremony at Makerere University on Friday, January 17, 2025.

High-yielding and resistant genotypes with favourable haplotypes can be utilized as parents for breeding or widely tested for their adaptability and released to farmers.

Molecular markers identified in the GINA core collection can be converted into easy-to-use molecular marker assays for GRD resistance breeding across Africa.

The study was funded by USAID, the World Bank and IFAD and was supervised by Dr. Peter Wasswa and Dr. David Kalule Okello.