MUBS students strike, lecturers flee campus

By Cecilia Okoth and Andrew Senyonga

It took the intervention of Police to quell a strike by Makerere University Business School (MUBS) students Saturday who are disgruntled over being stopped from doing coursework and tests before completing their tuition fees payments.

Police fired tear gas and coloured water at the rowdy students on the university’s campus. It is understood pepper spray was also used.

The clashes caught passers-by and journalists in their paths. No-one was spared.

The strike was started in a Business Administration (BBA) class which accommodates over 1000 students.

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It immediately gained momentum and spread to other parts of the university and its surrounding areas including the Capital Shoppers mall, Nakawa Institute of Information Technology and student hostels located outside the university.

One student was vocal about the situation.

He said: “They have never stopped us from doing course work tests because of not fully completing tuition. What we know is that, for one to sit, you must have paid over 60 percent which most of us have done.”

When students arrived at the test rooms with certified bank slips indicating over 60 percent tuition paid, they were blocked from doing the tests, something that one student found very “disturbing”.

The action culminated into the demonstration.

Noisy students made their way out of the university and blocked both the Kampala-Bugolobi and Kampala-Jinja roads. They turned their anger towards motorists using those routes – stoning every car that tried to access the blocked roads.

Others were seen stoning the university’s newly constructed library, breaking most of the glass windows.

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Some lecturers tried to flee from the fracas, but were stopped short by striking students who smashed the lecturers’ car windows. Other lecturers could be seen watching the scenes from inside the main building.

Businesses within and around the university were forced to a standstill as some students tried to loot items from open shops.

Riot police later intervened, led by Wesley Nganizi, the Jinja Road Police Station boss.

When contacted, Peter Odoki, the university’s spokesperson said the university policy states that students need to pay 100 percent tuition by the sixth week.

“We are just stipulating the Makerere University rules and actually most of them had paid 100 percent,” he said.

He pointed out that security has taken over the university and that they will wait until Monday to decide the students’ fate.