Makerere University students, researchers sue Prof Mamdani

Makerere Institute of Social Research (Misr) has been calm since the standoff involving Dr Stella Nyanzi and Misr director, Prof Mahmood Mamdani in 2016 subsided.
But despite not being in the news as it happened in 2016, Misr continues to be ridden by wrangles. Two students, one member of staff and a former Research Associate at Misr have dragged its director, Prof Mamdani, to court accusing him of vindictiveness, negligence of duty, breach of contract, and abuse of university rules and regulations.
PhD students Judith Ikiring Obore and Vincent Nuwagaba, separately went to court to seek remedy over Prof Mamdani’s alleged injustices and abuses. A recurring concern that led them separately to seek legal redress is that Makerere University administration repeatedly failed to exercise its oversight mandate over Prof Mamdani, allegedly allowing him to abuse his power.
Take Ms Ikiring’s case. She was admitted on March 13, 2014 as a graduate student at Makerere University. Her admission followed an award of scholarship by Misr under which she was to pursue a five-year Master of Philosophy/Doctor of Philosophy in Social Studies from January 2014 to January 2019.
The scholarship award letter states that continuation of funding required her to be “in good academic standing.” In her suit before the High Court Civil Division, Ms Ikiring, through her lawyers Kobs Advocates and Solicitors, claims that Misr manipulated the stipulated requirements for “good academic standing” to target particular students and avert a financial shortfall arising from the expiration of several grants which left 16 Misr students without funding for 2017.
She alleges in the plaint that in planning for the 2017 academic year, Misr sought how to cut the 16 slots across four cohorts to avert the looming financial crisis. Misr identified the 2014 cohorts to which she belonged as the one from which the highest number of scholarships could be conveniently terminated.
“As a result, the examination process which involves compiling two sets of annotated bibliographies, setting two sets of research questions and subsequently writing two comprehensive examinations was manipulated to predetermine who would progress to the fourth year, that is to the PhD stage, and who would lose their scholarship,” Ikiring maintains in her plaint.
She adds that Prof Mamdani and Dr Lynn Ossome, the chairperson of her reading committee, who is also a respondent in the case, were advised that it would be illegal to terminate any students’ scholarship midway provided the student had complied with the conditions of the scholarship and maintained “good academic standing”.
Prof Mamdani and Ossome, “ignored this advice against their pre-planned move”.
Ms Ikiring adds that contrary to existing requirements, practices and university regulations, the writing of a PhD research proposal was also arbitrarily added to the third year examination requirements and for the first time, a deadline by which the said research proposal should be submitted was set to coincide with the end of the 2016 academic year.
She says this was unprecedented and did not go through the right university procedures to make it binding.
Ms Ikiring contends further that the manipulation of academic procedures involved redefining good academic standing, well into the examination process and revising previous practices to predetermine students’ results.
Despite this overnight change in the rules of the game, Ms Ikiring notes that she duly complied with the examination requirements and was accordingly awarded her MPhil in February 2017. “But she was irregularly and maliciously prevented from progressing to the fourth year and to the PhD segment contrary to provisions of the Misr graduate students’ handbook,” the plaint reads in part.
Ms Ikiring contends that from September 2016 to August 2017, Misr adamantly refused to respond to her research proposal or respond to her pleas and appeals even though the unit continued to respond to other students.
In December 2017, Prof Mamdani and Dr Ossome eventually terminated Ms Ikiring’s scholarship on the pretext of the late submission of her research proposal. Ms Ikiring notes that the termination of her scholarship was done irregularly through Prof Mamdani and Dr Ossome’s lawyer in response to Ms Ikiring’s notice of intention to sue.
Ms Ikiring’s repeated appeals to the university’s internal structures mandated to supervise Misr were from March 2016 to February 2018 all in vain.
Citing unclear academic procedures in Misr, which disregarded regulations and procedures set by the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT), she objected to Misr’s insistence on evaluating the very first draft of her research proposal submitted with the expectation of receiving feedback as was the case with all her peers.
Dismissing her pleas, Misr proceeded to evaluate and reject the very first draft of her proposal, contrary to practices and procedures. She also queries the appointment of a reading committee of five members, including a post-doctoral fellow, instead of two or three as provided for by the regulations.
Ms Ikiring maintains that Prof Mamdani and Dr Ossome’s alleged irregularities and their discriminatory treatment caused her untold suffering and mental anguish. She prays that court finds Prof Mamdani and his co-defendants liable for the claims against them. She wants court to award her general and punitive damages for her inconveniences, time lost, lost opportunities, mental torture, and humiliation and costs of the suit.

Mamdani responds
In his response to the suit filed through his lawyers of M/s Tumusiime, Kabega & Co Advocates on May 3, 2018, Prof Mamdani denies all the charges leveled against him, arguing that at the commencement of the trial he will seek to raise preliminary objections to the effect that Ms Ikiring’s suit is bad in law and, therefore, should be struck out.
He explains that Ms Ikiring did not fully comply with the rules and regulations governing the scholarship awarded to her by Misr.
He says she failed to submit her doctoral research proposal to the Misr Academic Board before the set deadline of August 31, 2016, and instead submitted it on September 8, 2016, contrary to the set guidelines.
Prof Mamdani adds that Ms Ikiring’s doctoral research proposal was rejected by the Misr Academic Board because it lacked “a problem statement” as required by the regulations. “Therefore, the plaintiff could not be permitted to progress to the PhD segment without a valid research proposal,” Prof Mamdani says.
On why Ms Ikiring was assigned five members of her reading committee, Prof Mamdani says it was done in order to address her personal academic challenges.
“The reading committee was enlarged to five members to enable the plaintiff cope with the programme wherein each member was to guide the plaintiff on individual tasks but still the plaintiff was not able to achieve the required milestones,” Prof Mamdani’s response reads, contrary to facts of the case as outlined by Ms Ikiring, who claims that the committee neglected to respond to her proposal but proceeded to evaluate it despite her appeals.

Appeals committee
As the matter escalated, Ms Ikiring appealed to the office of the vice chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe on November 13, 2017. After waiting for a response in vain, she served the university, Prof Mamdani and Dr Ossome a notice of intention to sue on November 2, 2017.
On the same day, she received a letter from the vice chancellor notifying her that an ad hoc committee of the Board of Research and Graduate Training (BRGT) had been instituted to address the matter amicably.
On November 14, 2017, she received a letter inviting her to interact with the committee constituted of Prof David Bakibinga, Associate Prof Joan Kalyango, Associate Prof Gilbert Mayifa, and Prof David Owiny. Having listened to Misr represented by Dr Ossome in the BRGT meeting, the committee sent its report to the vice chancellor in favour of the student.
In a letter to the vice chancellor signed by all members of the committee, recommendations were made against Prof Mamdani and the administration at Misr. Among others, the committee noted that Misr should pay all the student benefits of the 2017 and 2018 academic year. Other recommendations included taking disciplinary action against Misr management and also “deliberate move to streamline the structures, systems and procedures at Misr and to align them to the university Semester System Regulations and Policies”.
It took Prof Nawangwe more than two months to address the matter despite a reminder from Ms Ikiring on January 12, 2018. When the vice chancellor eventually responded on February 12, 2018 after meeting Prof Mamdani on February 9, it rejected the report on the ground that the committee did not listen to Misr. When the vice chancellor directed the BRGT to interact with Misr, the board reportedly declined to repeat a procedure they had already complied with.

Another case
Mr Vincent Nuwagaba, another student, wants court to quash Makerere University/Prof Mamdani’s decision to terminate a scholarship Misr had awarded him first in 2014 and again 2016.
Justice Henrietta Wolayo allowed Mr Nuwagaba to file for judicial review of Makerere University’s DGRT and Prof Mamdani’s decision to terminate his studies and scholarship. Prof Nuwagaba successfully convinced the judge that he was unable to file the review of the decision in time because of circumstances beyond his control.
In his plaint, Mr Nuwagaba says in 2016, he was admitted for the Misr programme of study leading to the award of the Interdisciplinary MPhil/PhD in Social Studies. “The applicant avers that he duly accepted the admission and complied with all the requirements of the respondent which then made him a fully-fledged student of the respondent.”
The plaint continues that upon admission, “the applicant was promptly accorded a scholarship complete with an apartment at the premises of Misr together with insurance cover which benefits accrue to all students who have duly complied with the requirements for admission”.
Mr Nuwagaba’s application continues that almost four months into his study, there was a meeting of the Board of Research and Graduate Training that made a decision to discontinue him from the university.
“Arriving at this decision, the respondent’s stated that the board never accorded him an opportunity to be heard, which omission violates the principle of natural justice,” Mr Nuwagaba’s application reads. It is neither clear which rules Mr Nuwagaba violated for his scholarship to be terminated, nor why DRGT Board met to review Misr applications for students who were already studying.
Mr Nuwagaba says the termination of his studies and scholarship caused him a condition called ‘manic depression’ and as a result, he was admitted to Butabika National Psychiatry Hospital for an extended period. He adds that when he was discharged from the hospital, police, allegedly on the instigation of Prof Mamdani, took interest in him and he was subsequently arrested and detained in several police stations in and around Kampala. Eventually he was charged and remanded to Luzira Maximum Prison.
In his application, miscellaneous cause No 100 of 2018, that will be heard on July 2 2018, Mr Nuwagaba wants “a permanent injunction restraining the respondents officers, employee or servants … from harassing, hounding intimidating, persecuting, discriminating, segregating, against or in any other way interfering with his studies”.
He also wants Makerere University to pay him general and exemplary damages for its alleged arbitrariness, inconvenience wrought upon him as a result of the decision to discontinue him from the programme of study.

Mamdani reacts on Nuwagaba case
Like in Ms Ikring’s case, Prof Mamdani, claims that Mr Nuwagaba’s case is barred in law and an abuse of the court process. He further claims that Mr Nuwagaba’s mental health got in the way of his studies that stopped him from registering as a Makerere University student, hence forfeiting his vacancy.
“The Misr library staff noted that…he was the cause of significant disruption in the library causing agony to users and staff. Their complaints ranged from verbal abuse to bullying, disregard of library rules and procedures, violence, and making death threats…” Prof Mamdani states.
He adds that due to his mental condition, Mr Nuwagaba temporarily withdrew from his academic obligations and was admitted at Butabika hospital where he has been a known mental patient since 2008.
“Whereas there was a medical clearance, there were never any assurances that the mental health was not subject to deterioration. Indeed, the mental health of the applicant deteriorated rendering him unable to register on time,” Prof Mamdani states in his response.
However, the letter signed by the deputy vice chancellor in charge of academic affairs, Dr Ernest Okello Ogwang, which terminates Mr Nuwagaba’s admission does not make reference to any mental illness condition nor any threats to Makerere University employees. Instead, it says Mr Nuwagaba was irregularly admitted. The nature of irregular admission is not explained.