Ssemboga’s rise to Mak guild presidency
Ssemboga listens to a colleague during the March guild elections that were challenged in court. Photo by Blanshe Musinguzi
At long last, the ball twisted in his favour and Roy Ssemboga, 25, a fifth year medical student was sworn in as the Makerere University guild president.
Ssemboga will at least for three months lead Makerere University students, one of Africa’s best institutions of higher learning.
His luck came after students rejected a re-election at the School of Education early this month that had been ordered by the university guild election tribunal.
When Bazil Mwotta, a second year Education Student, who had challenged Ssemboga in the March guild election, petitioned the university tribunal’s decision, High Court Judge Justice Stephen Musota dismissed the case.
Ssemboga, a Democratic Party leaning candidate was declared winner after polling 4,247 votes while Mwotta, his closest rival scored 2,863 votes.
Born on December 23, 1990 to Ruth Nakyejwe and Ponsiano Kibirige, Ssemboga is the third born in a family of four children.
His father is a retired politician, currently dealing in import business. The mother, a business woman based in Canada.
He hails from Busiro South, Wakiso District but presently resides in Entebbe, where he has grown up alone because his parents separated while he was still young.
“I never had a chance of getting mentorship from my parents. My mum left the country when I joined her at her home in Entebbe. Most of the time, I have been taking decisions alone,” he says.
Ssemboga went to St Mary’s Primary School and Kiwafu Muslim Primary School in Entebbe before joining Our Lady of Africa Secondary School, Namilyango for O-level.
He proceeded to Nalya Secondary School, Namugongo before returning to Our Lady of Africa where he completed his A-level.
He scored 5 aggregates in PLE, 10 in UCE and 23 points in UACE where he studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics.
Studying medicine, Ssemboga says, was a childhood dream that was inspired by a Reverend who would all the time taunt him as a future doctor after beating Primary Seven students to win a science fare when he was just in Primary Two.
“My dream was to become a doctor because I admired doctors. I loved doctors even when they were injecting me unlike most children,” he says.
The fifth year medical student has since 2003 been serving in different student leadership roles including class head in Primary Six and Senior One.
In Senior Two he was a time keeper before becoming the academic affairs prefect in Senior Three.
In Senior Five, he proposed the idea of introducing a ‘school council’ at Our Lady of Africa and was subsequently elected the school council chairperson and later school council ‘chief justice’.
“As a chief justice, I would deal with students’ discipline cases and give reasonable punishments. For cases I could not handle, I referred them to the school management,” he recounts.
At university, he served as a sports minister at the School of Medicine in his second year, before becoming the chairperson of Nkurumah Hall in his third year and chairperson of the university electoral commission.
In his short time in office, Ssemboga promises that he will work on solving students’ perennial challenges such as missing marks and sexual harassment as well as rebuilding the reputation of Makerere University and its students.
“We have been known for the wrong reasons. Some companies are no longer offering internship placement to Makerere University students because of the many strikes here,” he says.
Ssemboga, together with his leadership team will bridge the communication gap between students and university management as well as introduce consultative leadership.
Committees, he says, have been already been established at school and college level to get details of students with missing marks which will be sent to top the university management for clearance.
“I also want to work closely with the media to expose culprits who sexually harass our girls,” he says.
Ssemboga admits he has been part of students’ struggles through which they have sought to solve several problems but without much success.
“I can’t sit back to see our rights being violated. You see, we do not like strikes but the university administration takes us for granted. Actually, when we strike, we get instant response,” he says.
Ssemboga believes he is cut out to be a politician and he thinks it will be hard to detach himself from Uganda’s politics because “things are not being done in a proper way and the priorities of the government are not the priorities of Ugandans”.
He wants to be in the fight that will return the rule of law and democracy that has been trampled on by those who wield power.
However, student critics label Ssemboga as a stooge of university administrators, a coward, a “political mafia”, who will not deliver anything to the students.
The claims, he says “are mere politicking” and hopes to spend his 90 days in office progressively to prove them wrong”.
Profile
Roy Ssemboga, makerere university guild president
Age: 24
Background: He was born on December 23, 1990 to Ruth Nakyejwe and Ponsiano Kibirige in Busiro South, Wakiso District. He is the third born of four children. He is an active member of the Democratic Party youth wing.
Education: He went to St Mary’s Primary School and Kiwafu Muslim Primary School in Entebbe before joining Our Lady of Africa Secondary School, Namilyango for O-level. He proceeded to Nalya Secondary School, Namugongo before returning to Our Lady of Africa where he completed his A-level. He later joined Makerere University to study a Bachelors in Medicine.
