Students right to ask for fees drop
Makerere University students last week staged a strike which lasted for four days. The students were protesting the hiking of tuition fees by 15 per cent. As a result, scores of students were apprehended.
The strike was initially peaceful but the deployment of the military at the university, who mercilessly beat up students, forced the situation to turn chaotic. The military fired teargas in a bid to disperse the students.
Article 24 of the 1995 Constitution provides for respect for human dignity and protection from inhuman treatment. Article 29(d) of the same Constitution provides for freedom to assemble and to demonstrate together with others peacefully and unarmed and to petition.
This means that it is lawful for a group of people to gather and express their dissatisfaction over what they are not pleased with so long as they do it without harming other people or vandalising property. Unfortunately, the government has diminished the importance of these constitutional provisions. The military are always on standby to use every means to suppress a demonstration even when it is a peaceful one.
Makerere University students did not commit any crime by asking the university to lower the tuition fees. All they basically did was to gather and express their concern that some students were dropping out of university because some parents could no longer afford to pay the hiked tuition.
The 15 per cent increment is literally a big increase for degree programme, which initially cost Shs1m, for example, will now increase by Shs150,000.
It is important that police control any demonstration, but the manner in which they do so should be based on humanitarian ground. The merciless beatings and unnecessary arrests often witnessed when a group of Ugandans converge to protest against unrealistic public policies depict the nature of the police we have today - a ruthless Force. I suggest that the government takes officers for retraining, particularly on how to handle demonstrations without necessarily torturing people.
If police continue to torture demonstrators even when it is uncalled for, some police bosses may face sanctions from significant international bodies on the basis of abuse of human rights just like the United States recently did to the former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura.
I appeal to the relevant authorities to work towards promoting freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution. Perpetrators of this fundamental human right should be made to account regardless of their positions government.
