10 Mak students arrested in protest over online lectures

A cross-section of Makerere University students spent most of yesterday morning in running battles with riot police and the military as they protested against online lectures. 

Clad in their red university gowns, the students started their procession at Nsibirwa Hall (formerly North Cote Hall) where they played songs composed by National Unity Platform president Robert Kyagulanyi as they demanded the administration to fully open the university and scrap blended learning.

Within minutes, the security officers comprising police and the military arrested some of the students, dragged them onto their pick-up trucks and drove them off to police.

Mr Samuel Ssemakaba, a third year student pursuing a Degree in Social Sciences, who also doubles as the representative for persons with special needs on the guild council, landed on the floor when a police officer grabbed his crutches and attempted to arrest him in a scuffle.  

“They wanted to hit the leg of one of the students with special needs. When I came in to intervene, they arrested me and went ahead to take away my crutches. I fell down and they even stepped on me. I challenged them and they released me,” Mr Ssemakaba said. 

“We want the university to be opened. We have engaged the administration but our pleas have not been listened to. Even lecturers themselves have written to us, asking us to talk to administration because they are also tired of sitting at home, especially at a time when the economy has been fully reopened,” he explained.

Students speak out

Mr Ssemakaba added that blended learning was not favouring students, especially those who are visually impaired.

Makerere University Guild President Shamim Nambassa said the students would continue striking until the university is fully reopened.

“ There is no valid reason as to why the university should remain closed yet we are paying a lot of money as tuition and functional fees and we have to incur charges to buy data,” Ms Nambassa said.

 “We are going to fight until this university is fully opened. Police have nothing to tell us because we are the ones who study from here. It is our education that matters,” she added.

The Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, said: “We managed to arrest 10 students who are currently detained at Wandegeya and Makerere University police stations for inciting violence and we shall investigate them further.”

Mr Owoyesigyire will remain deployed in and around the university to see that the situation does not go out of hand.

In a statement, the Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, said they are making arrangements on resumption of physical lectures.

 “We are working out a road map for possible full opening of the university for face to face teaching and learning in the shortest possible time, hopefully by the second semester. In order to achieve this, we have made arrangements to vaccinate all students against Covid-19.

Currently, only 20 percent of the students are vaccinated,” he said.

Nevertheless, Prof Nawangwe noted that blended teaching and learning was approved by the university in 2015 under the distance and e-learning policy as the most appropriate mode of teaching and learning in the modern higher education.

He urged students to desist from attempts to disrupt university activities under the pretext of demanding full reopening.

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