Activists protest Makerere’s new guild statute

Activists from the Inter-Party Youth Platform have vowed to drag Makerere University Council to court if it doesn’t review the new guild statute which they say contains provisions that violate human rights.

The Interparty Youth is a platform that brings together youth wings of nine political parties including; the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Conservative Party(CP), and the Democratic Party (DP).

Others are; Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), JEMA, People’s Progressive Party (PPP), National Unity Platform (NUP), Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) and Uganda People’s Congress (UPC).

Addressing the media on Friday in Kampala, members of the platform said some of the current guild statute provisions violate Article 29 of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda and Section 3(2) of the political parties and organizations act, which provide for freedom of association and expression.

Mr Abdul Wahab Kasozi, the platform chairperson, said: “Even the current process of election of students’ leaders at Makerere University using online platforms should be reviewed as it disenfranchises some voters."

Mr David Musiri, the National Unity Platform head of Institutions and Youth wing deputy leader, said whatever is taking place at Makerere University regarding elections is an attack on the democracy of the multi-party system and an insult to student deliberations.

“We thought of very many fronts. One would be an industrial action and two we would go to the courts of law to challenge the statute because we believe as Ugandans, we have a supreme law in this country and we are going to challenge the suspensions of the two National Unity Platform guild contestants; Margret Nattabi and Sulaiman Namwoza who were disqualified over allegedly deviating away from the election guidelines,” he said.

The university council on September 16, 2022, enacted a new Makerere Students’ Guild statute 2022, in which it suspended all physical elections and national political party affiliations in the University Guild elections.

This followed the 2022 last hour-violent campaigns that caused a scuffle in which one Betungura Bewatte, who was a second-year law student at Uganda Christian University, Kampala Campus, was stabbed to death.

The two consecutive guild elections have been held virtually and whoever violated the provisions in this statute, was suspended from the race.