What is behind Makerere University’s troubles?

Kampala. Fear, blackmail, intimidation, suspicion and animosity sum up the precarious atmosphere reigning at Makerere University as the Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, insists lectures are going on while the teaching staff maintain they are on strike.
Calls to end the standoff have not been heeded. Prof Nawangwe says indiscipline and hooliganism must be dealt with at the country’s oldest university.
He says a lot of rot has taken place at the institution for a long time, adding that resistance from those who seek to maintain the status quo doesn’t surprise him.
“A lot of impunity has been growing slowly at this university. It’s not something which started just now. We can’t continue like that. It’s not surprising,” Prof Nawangwe said.
“There is going to be no relinquishing our resolve to return sanity and discipline to Makerere University. Everybody must know that. People can shout that I am a dictator but that is going to continue to return total sanity in the university because without that, we will not be able to make our contribution and impact in a way we are actually able to do,” he added.
Dr Edward Mwavu, the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (Muasa) vice chairperson, differs.
He says while they agree that management cleans up the university, it must be done lawfully.
The association accuses Prof Nawangwe of failing to listen to their grievances and instead using his power to dismiss them from service.

Warnings
Dr Mwavu says they informed the management before the first semester started in August that they would not return to work for second semester unless their salary enhancement arrears of Shs29.5 billion was paid and staff welfare looked into.
In addition, the staff asked management to repeal an amendment they had put in the university human resource manual which provided that the university could still discipline an individual, including dismissal even if court cleared them of the allegations.
Their demands, according to Dr Mwavu, culminated in dismissal of Dr Bennet Magara and Mr Joseph Kalema, Makerere Administrative Staff Association (Masa) leaders in December and the latest suspension of Muasa chairperson Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi.
“Our various associations last year elected leaders who were nominated to represent their constituencies on Council. But when they went, Council denied them access. While we were still grappling with that, Kamunyu was suspended. It was a bombshell. It was clear Makerere leadership didn’t want anybody who criticised them,” Dr Mwavu says. “We need to be consistent. We don’t want to hurt the students and parents. We want them to come to a place that is conducive where all parties going to serve them are happy. We don’t wake up one day and lay down tools. Our warning was given at the beginning of first semester in August,” he adds.
He says although government has paid their salary enhancement arrears of Shs29.5 billion, there are other pending issues affecting the staff internally.
“There was an amendment of the university human resource manual which violated the constitution. We asked management to reconsider its amendment,” Mr Mwavu says.
The staff also want the University Council’s choice of Mr Thomas Tayebwa and Mr Bruce Balaba Kabasa to represent the public on the new council composition to be dropped because the lecturers say they don’t like their methods of work.
However, Prof Nawangwe scoffed at the demands by Muasa and Masa.
“They think they can decide who can go on Council whether they are their representatives or not, they can even write to the minister and order the minister which people to appoint making the university completely ungovernable, that any decisions of Council or management will be challenged,” he says.
Sources close to the outgoing University Council say the lecturers are uncomfortable with Mr Tayebwa because his Finance and Administration committee scrapped the incentives while Mr Kabasa, who headed the Appointments Board, abolished teaching assistants and introduced contracts for academic staff on a four-year tenure.

Division on Council members
“All this agitation you hear about Kabasa and Tayebwa is because Tayebwa was chairing Finance and Administration committee of the Council where staff allowances, ceiling, recruitment are discussed. The Tayebwa committee abolished the incentive allowances. Kabasa committee introduced interviews for all incoming academic staff, implemented the disciplinary policy which saw 45 staff dismissed last year.

“There are many people at Makerere who don’t have the required teaching load of 12 hours a week, travel without permission, have double jobs contrary to public service rules. They have all the reasons to fear,” the source says.
Makerere School of Law last week opposed the suspension and advised Prof Nawangwa to recall the suspended Muasa and Masa association leaders to allow negotiations.

However, the university’s legal directorate has dismissed the law lecturers’ view.
“Their (School of Law dons) view is that the suspension of the staff was illegal and unconstitutional. They have advised that the said suspension be withdrawn. We don’t agree. The suspended members of staff were not suspended for their involvement in matters related to their academic work. They were suspended for misconduct, indiscipline and involvement in acts that breach the terms and conditions of their employment. The vice chancellor has powers to suspend any staff alleged to have violated the terms of employment,” Mr Henry Mwebe, the university’s Director of Legal Affairs wrote on January 30.
Dr Kamunyu has accepted to meet the Prof Sarah Kiguli-led committee tomorrow.
The committee is investigating the alleged misconduct against the suspended staff as claimed by the university. The committee has two months to complete its work.
Muasa has called a joint general assembly of support staff, administrative and lecturers at 2pm today to review what has been happening.
On Friday, the Muasa general secretary, Dr Michael Walimbwa, convened a meeting of staff and agreed to call off the strike.
Mr Mwavu disowned the meeting, saying it was convened without his knowledge.

Planned meeting
“Our meeting is on Monday [today]. If the general secretary invited a meeting over a petition, I am not aware. He has never presented any petition from the staff to the executive over the strike. All I know is that the strike is on. We don’t agree with Tayebwa and Kabasa on Council. There are very many people out there council can pick to represent the public. We want Prof Nawangwe to lift the suspension of three association leaders: Kamunyu, Magara and Kalema. We demand that Ruth Iteu should be allowed to represent her constituency. Those are the issues before we regain normalcy,” Dr Mwavu said.
However, in a separate interview, Dr Michael Walimbwa, the Muasa general secretary, counter-accused Dr Mwavu of walking out of the Friday meeting before they could conclude discussing the petition.
The division between the Muasa leaders prompted a section of staff who gathered at the main building under Prof Jockey Nyakaana, the director of Jinja campus, and resolved to lift the strike.
“Those who don’t report to teach on Monday will have themselves to blame. There will be an audit in the lecture rooms. If you are not in class and students are there, you will be accountable,” Prof Nyakaana said.
Prof Nawangwe maintains that he acted lawfully to suspend his staff. He says Dr Kalema and Dr Magara’s election as Masa leaders flouted the association’s constitution which requires that the elections be conducted by a board of trustees who are no longer in active service.
“They were going to cause multiple centres of the associations because they carried out their elections with disregard to their own constitution. People elected to offices within Masa must be people who have been confirmed in the university for at least five years. Some of those I suspended like Kalema were not confirmed in service for five years,” Prof Nawangwe says.
“They flouted their constitution. A group of them petitioned me that this was wrong …. I never nullified. I only advised them. I didn’t want to have a multiplicity of small organisations coming up. They claimed I don’t have powers. Unfortunately for them, the law says the vice chancellor is the overall officer responsible for academic, financial, administrative activities of the university,” Prof Nawangwe says.
Some people have accused Prof Nawangwa of being intolerant. They cite a letter in which his former supervisor, Prof John Ssentamu Ddumba, accused him, while he was vice chancellor in charge of Finance at the time, of insubordination but never disciplined him.
“On a number of occasions, you have been invited for meetings and you have deliberately refused to attend them without any information or apology… you have made derogatory verbal utterances and disparagingly shouted at me in management meetings. This exhibits gross misconduct and disrespect. Your actions have caused enormous humiliation to me,” Prof Ddumba wrote to Prof Nawangwe on January 30, 2017.
When contacted, Prof Ddumba confirmed writing to Prof Nawangwe but asked to be excused from Makerere affairs as he was unwell.
“I wrote that letter some time back. I have been in hospital since December. I have just been discharged, recovering. I don’t want to be involved in Makerere things. Leave me out of this, please,” Prof Ddumba said.
However, Prof Nawangwe is adamant his foes will not divert him from doing what he believes will improve the university image.
“There was a misunderstanding on a certain project where Prof Ddumba wrote basing on some rumours and I wrote back to him and said this programme is run by a committee which was established and you (Prof Ddumba) requested me to chair. We had been producing reports every year.

“The allegations that the money was being misused when actually the resources were being audited by the Auditor General, going through our internal audit system were untrue. I don’t know why Prof Ddumba wrote back and said by responding back I was being insubordinate,” Prof Nawangwe says.

“I was only explaining. I was not blocking any disciplinary investigations. I was informing him we have this project which I personally was chairing and had been producing reports which I sent to him. In any case, two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because I was not disciplined doesn’t mean that I should not discipline others. They are trying to divert me from my goals but they will not succeed.”

Dr Tanga Odoi, a former Muasa chairperson and current Convocation chair, appealed to the association leaders and university management to be exemplary, value dialogue and respect each other.
Mr Kabasa declined to comment on the matter, saying he was at the centre of the discussion while Mr Tayebwa’s contact was unavailable.