District security committee meets over MUST saga

EDUCATION

MBARARA - As staffs' strike at Mbarara University of Science and Technology(MUST) enters the sixth day since May 2, Mbarara district security committee led by Lt. Col James Mwesigye have Tuesday afternoon held a crisis security meeting to a forge a way forward to end the impasse at the institution.

The meeting came after students in the morning stormed the office of the RDC in a peaceful procession seeking intervention and asking whether they are going to sit for their end of semester exams slated for May 13, 2019.

The security meeting which was closed to none members including media was attended by the Murungi DPC Mbarara, Collins Kaganzi the Field Force Unit (FFU) commander, LCV Chairman John Bosco Bamuturaki, deputy RDC Emmy Katera and RDC Lt. Col James Mwesigye and lasted for over 30 minutes.

Later, Katera told media without divulging into the details of the meeting that they have agreed to hold the meeting with the leaders of MUSTASA, students' leadership and members of the university council.

Katera confirmed that students stormed their office following a meeting that was held on Monday in Kampala by the Chairperson of the Council Ben Mbonye with some members of MUSTASA which ended without resolving on any matter.

"When the council chair summoned a meeting on Monday in Kampala, one of the submissions from MUSTASA members was that the current VC Prof Obua Celestine and his University Secretary Melchior Byaruhanga should be subjected to investigations over misuse of funds and that as investigations go on, the accused persons should step aside. This generated a heated discussion where the Chairperson declined arguing that he will first consult the solicitor general."

The letter dated May 6, 2019, from Prof. Obua to the MUST students community indicates how he was going to communicate about the resolutions from the meeting that was held in Kampala, which he did not do.

Dear MUST students, the current strike by MUST staffs that has temporary disrupted lectures and your preparations for the end of year semester exams in regrettable, this is to inform you that the Chancellor and Chairman council is today (Monday) scheduled to have a meeting with the leadership of the staffs' association and the guild leadership to forge a way forward for the solution to the standoff," reads the letter in part.

"So we agreed that if the university leadership has failed to handle these matters, we representatives of the government are going to take over because we cannot allow this university to collapse. In the meeting we are going to hold tonight, we want to ensure that lecturers resume tomorrow and if they don't then we shall close it, which will be costly to students and parents and even the image of the university will be tainted." Katera assured.