Barya contests Senate VC decision

By Conan Businge
       
Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba has appealed to Makerere University’s Senate and Council to quash the voting process which was conducted Thursday, arguing that it was marred with irregularities.  
  
Prof. Barya in a letter says, “Some non-Senate members were allowed to participate in the nomination exercise, which contravenes the law.”  
  
The letter says that a number of people represented Deans, Makerere’s Business School and the Guild without proper authorisation as required by the law.

Barya says that in view of the anomalies, since the third and fourth candidates were separated by one vote, the recommendations of Senate where Professors Nawangwe, Ddumba and Kirumira are listed as the best three candidates “cannot stand.”   
 
“The process must be repeated with only members of Senate participating in the nomination exercise,” he adds in his letter to the Council, Senate and Academic Registrar.

He also added, “I’m reliably informed that there were representatives of Deans who voted when they had not yet been appointed Acting Deans by the appointing Authority.”  
  
A member of Makerere University staff becomes a member of Senate as per Section 41(2)(c) once appointed as Dean by the appointing authority; who is the Vice Chancellor.

In the letter, Prof. Barya added, “As much as Deans are members of Senate, a person representing a Dean of a School to qualify to be a member of Senate and have voting rights, must have at the very least an official letter from the appointing authority appointing that person an Acting Dean.    

Much as Makerere University Business School (MUBS) was supposed to officially write to Senate informing it of its representatives, Prof. Barya notes that this was not done.

But the School, he adds, featured representatives who also voted on Thursday in the Senate, making the process irregular.
In the same letter, Prof. Barya says that although Makerere’s Guild communicated in writing their two representatives to Senate, the graduate representative who attended and voted is not the legally accepted one. 
     
He explained in the letter that Senate was supposed to ensure it checks the validity of each member of Senate before nomination.

Earlier on Thursday, the Senate selected three of the five candidates vying for the position currently occupied by Barya in an acting capacity.

Senate chose Professors John Ddumba Ssentamu, Edward K. Kirumira and Barnabas Nawangwe and knocked Baryamureeba and Katunguka Rwakishaya out of the race.