Kyambogo graduates 9,000 today

Students celebrate during their graduation ceremony at Kyambogo University in 2019. The university is set to graduate more than 9,000 students in a three-day ceremony that kicks off today at the main campus in Kampala. Photo/file

What you need to know:

  • Court dismissed a petition by aggrieved students to halt the ceremony.

Kyambogo University is set to graduate more than 9,000 students in a three-day ceremony that kicks off today at the main campus in Kampala. 
Addressing journalists yesterday, the vice chancellor of the university, Prof Eli Katunguka, said out of the 9,521 students slated to graduate, 5,074 are male and 4,447 are female. 

At least 251 students will graduate with first class honours from different programmes.  
 “This is the highest number of students we are graduating in a single ceremony for the last 16 years as well as those who have attained first class degrees,” Prof Katunguka said. 

Only a few invited guests, master’s students, and those with first class degrees, will attend the ceremony physically while the rest will follow proceedings on the Internet or television. 
According to Prof Katunguka, President Museveni and Education Minister Janet Museveni will grace the ceremony but virtually. He said they will both address the congregation from State House. 

The graduation comes a few days after High Court dismissed a petition by aggrieved students to halt the ceremony because their names were missing on the graduation list. 
About 200 students accused the university of omitting their names from the graduation booklet despite having excelled and their names pinned up on the institution’s notice board.  
Prof Katunguka, however, said some of the students, who ran to court, had retakes, handed in their projects late, while others had missing masks. 
The university, however, indicates that once the results of the aggrieved students are verified by Senate, their transcripts will be processed even when they have not attended the ceremony. 
The university chief security officer, however, warned the aggrieved students against disrupting the function today.

Closed to public
Traffic police yesterday cautioned people, who have been using roads within Kyambogo University to access the city centre, that the campus will be closed starting today. 
The regional traffic officer, Kampala Metropolitan Police East, Mr Rogers Namanya, said only invited guests and students with invitation cards will access the university.
“People, who have been dodging the traffic jam on Jinja Road by using Kabaka’s Road and Banda side through the university to access the main road, will not be allowed for the next three days. They can use other routes,” Mr Namanya said. 
This graduation was to be conducted in December 2020 but due to Covid-19 pandemic, it was postponed thrice.