Kyambogo to accredit student hostels

 By Innocent Anguyo

KYAMBOGO University plans to accredit hostels that comply with security guidelines in a bid to improve the safety of its students.

Students who will choose to reside in unaccredited hostels will do so at their own risk, the university’s leadership has warned.

Although the plan is still at early stages, Kyambogo University acting vice chancellor Prof Eli Katunguka said, once implemented, it will go a long way in curbing crimes such as theft, assault, trespass, vandalism and robbery.

The University has instituted a management committee to restructure its security system, in light of purging the safety gaps at the institution.

Some hostels at Kyambogo don’t have gates, security lights, guards, perimeter fence, metal detectors and firefighting equipment.

However, these hostels are privately owned and therefore in most cases immune to the university’s accommodation guidelines.

Sandra Atukunda, a third year student of procurement and logistics management had earlier said although many hostels have more security loopholes, the porous fence around the university equally makes it vulnerable to intrusion by criminals bent on causing mayhem.

The news of Kyambogo’s plans to accredit hostels comes just days after it emerged that two female students had reported being raped at the university.

However, in an interview with New Vision, Katunguka claimed that the students were raped outside the university premises.

“We have learned that the two had gone out with the boyfriends who deserted them for unknown reasons,” said Katunguka.

In a recent interview, Kyambogo students’ guild president also expressed concern that while the rape of female students has raised more eye brows, male students are increasingly being targeted by iron-bar hit men.

Transcripts not stolen

The Kyambogo University management has denied reports that academic transcripts have been stolen from one of the institution’s offices.

“All transcripts are kept in the office of the academic registrar and none of them has been stolen,” said Katunguka.

Katunguka said answer scripts dating back as long as two decades have nevertheless been stolen from Kyambogo.

“Since the establishment of Kyambogo University, all answer scripts have been stored with some being put in the corridors because we don’t have a policy allowing us to dispose them off. I presume these scripts were stolen by people who deal in the business of recycling papers,” explained Katunguka.

He said Kyambogo is developing a policy that will enable the institution to dispose-off its non-active documents such as answer scripts every five years.