Lawlessness dents Makerere University’s reputation

From December 22, 2018 when Makerere University dismissed 45 staff, the institution has remained stuck in the dazzling glare of media spotlight. The public has hardly been given a clear diagnosis of the malaise afflicting the university.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, has emphasised that the dismissals were intended to stamp out indiscipline. He has continued to assure the public that the decisions were done legally. Appearing at the 69th graduation ceremony at the university on January 15, President Museveni applauded him for his decisiveness.
The second semester opened on January 19 with students returning to a university campus teeming with soldiers. No parent wants their child, especially female ones, in such an environment.

The executives of the staff associations, following the joint Emergency General Assembly of January 11, which declared an industrial action, had urged students to stay at home as they engage university management over unresolved disputes. Amid these happenings and Prof Nawangwe’s utter disregard for the rule of law, the public deserves an explanation.
Majority of the dismissals were for abscondment. Prof Nawangwe claims that the university was simply cleaning the payroll off employees who had long left university service, but continued to receive salaries. He pledged to recover the monies paid irregularly to such employees, most of whom had long resigned from university service.

Who had been receiving their salaries when in the last four years, there were two verification exercises? How could any staff who was no longer on the ground slip through such processes? Before becoming the VC, Prof Nawangwe, as the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance & Administration), was directly in charge of the university’s human resources and finances. He owes the public a sincere explanation on how employees who were no longer in the university service continued to draw salaries or, rather, have salaries fraudulently drawn in their names.

Contrary to claims that suspended/terminated/dismissed individuals were indisciplined, the university appeared more interested in getting rid of critical, but dedicated staff as the cases below illustrate:
Dr Juma Anthony Okuku’s students plagiarised massively and the lecturer reported the case to his head of department (Political Science). Nothing was done. He then turned to the Dean, Principal, Quality Assurance Director, vice chancellor and eventually the then chairperson of Council. Instead, some university officials instigated the students against Okuku, who was simply trying to protect the integrity of the university’s academic process.

The Department sidestepped Okuku and cleared the students, forcing Okuku to sue the university. In retaliation, the university summoned him for disciplinary action. Since the case was/is still in court, Okuku declined to appear before the Disciplinary Committee as doing so would constitute subjudice. Okuku was irregularly dismissed.

My own case arose from my persistence in exposing irregularities, improprieties, and victimisations of students and staff in Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) under Prof Mahmood Mamdani. I wrote repeatedly to the university management, noting that the survival of MISR requires its proper institutionalisation within the collegiate system. University administrators, perhaps too afraid of Mamdani, ignored flagrant cases of irregularities and improprieties.

I warned that Mamdani’s capriciousness, injustices and lawlessness would cost the university enormously in litigation and legal settlements. Currently, there are four separate on-going legal cases in the High Court against Mamdani and the university.
Two others were settled out of court between 2017 and 2018. While allowing Mamdani to operate with total impunity despite two separate recommendations of punitive action against him between 2016 and 2018, the VC was quick to subject me to a bogus disciplinary procedure at the behest of Mamdani.

The open-ended suspensions of Bennet Magara, Joseph Kalema and Dr Deus Muhwezi Kamunyu for their roles as leaders of staff associations were done in contravention of existing laws. Employment Act, 2006, for instance, insulates association leaders from victimisation by bosses. The same Act stipulates that suspension of an employee may not exceed four weeks on half-pay. The university’s Appointment Board, disregarding this provision, has been suspending staff indefinitely without pay.

The Board craftily mixed good apples with bad ones to target critical staff. There was no commitment to eradicating indiscipline whatsoever. While perpetrators of sexual harassment, alteration of marks, corruption, etc., got off with minimal sentences, with many escaping disciplinary procedures entirely, those deemed critical of university management and Council were targeted and suspended indefinitely or dismissed summarily. This penalisation of critical staff ignored Article 29(1) (b) of the 1995 Constitution, which protects the right to “freedom of thought, conscience and belief, which shall include academic freedom in institutions of learning.”

The explanation for this wanton disregard for the rule of law seems to lie in the culture of impunity and the university’s legal representations by outside legal firms. The perception among members of the university community is that university officials profit from these endless litigations. We have had cases where officials deliberately mishandle cases, arrogantly referring complainants to go to court.
While it is counterintuitive for administrators to place their organisations in legal jeopardy deliberately, in Makerere University, lawlessness by managers seems to have become a commodity.

Dr Ocita is a lecturer, Department of Literature,
Makerere University. [email protected]