Masaka disowns varsity quota students

Masaka District chairperson Jude Mbabaali

What you need to know:

Denounced. The district chairman says five out of six beneficiaries said to come from Masaka are not from there

MASAKA.

Masaka District chairperson Jude Mbabaali has queried the names of students admitted on the 2016/17 university district quota scheme, saying the beneficiaries are not bona fide residents of the district.

In his letter to Mr Robert Odeke Oceng, the commissioner for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Mr Mbabaali said out of the seven shortlisted students, six don’t hail from Masaka.
“…I regret to inform you that we investigated and found that all the recommended students you forwarded to me for verification except one (Sandra Nalwoga) do not originate from Masaka, but from other districts ” Mr Mbabaali’s letter dated July 14, reads in part.

According to Mr Mbabaali, the shortlisted quota system beneficiaries for Masaka including Justine Nabusenene, Mercy Mutesi, Phionah Turyahebwa, and Nicholas Kyeyune were found to be residents of Rakia District, Iganga, Mbarara, and Kampala, respectively, while Maria Nambatya and Rachael Najjoba both hail from Kalungu District.

Mr Mbabaali said for the few months he has been in office he has received numerous complaints from residents claiming that students who don’t hail from Masaka have over the years been taking their slots under the district quota scheme and previous district leaders failed to address the problem.

So far, none of the affected students has come up to oppose the removal of their names from the list. First year students began their first academic year on August 6.

Related case

Recently, State House intervened in the quota scholarship saga in Mbale District after the district education officials removed one beneficiary from the list on grounds that he was not a bona fide resident of the district. Solomon Mujalasa, the victim of the saga claimed that his name was illegally removed from the list and the allegations levelled against him are baseless because he was born in Mbale and has spent the whole of his life in the district. State House has since ordered that the student be cleared so that he pursues his Bachelors of Science in Software Engineering degree course.