MUBS students strike over allowances

Nov 19, 2003

APPARENTLY picking a cue from their main campus colleagues, Makerere University Business School (MUBS) students at Nakawa yesterday went on strike claiming delayed living out allowances.

By Vision Reporters

APPARENTLY picking a cue from their main campus colleagues, Makerere University Business School (MUBS) students at Nakawa yesterday went on strike claiming delayed living out allowances.

The strike, which comes two days after that at Makerere, turned violent but was quickly quashed by Riot Police who lobbed teargas canisters and fired rubber bullets at the students.

MUBS spokesman Patrick Onen Ezaga yesterday blamed the students strike on the inconsistent attitude at the ministry of education.

“At one moment the ministry demanded for a list of students entitled to the money which we submitted. Later they changed and demanded for the cost unit of maintaining each student,” Ezaga said.

The students, holding placards, barricaded the Port Bell Road near the MUBS gate with logs and stone boulders and lit a bonfire in the middle of the road, cutting off traffic.

There was drama on more than two occasions when a Jiefang military truck drove through the barriers at high speed, sending the apparently unwavering students to flight.

More was to come. A convoy of the Army Chief of Staff, Brig. Nakibus Lakara, appeared from Mbuya and his escorts jumped off the vehicles and fanned out with guns on the ready. The students fled.

After an appeal by Kampala Police chief Benson Nyeko failed, Riot Police charged at the students.

High pressure water canons were followed by volleys of bullets in the air as the students scampered to safety. In under a minute it was all over.

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