Has Museveni finally captured Makerere?

Most independent-minded and perceptive Ugandans today have a very bleak and grim view of where the country stands and where it is headed.

Even among individuals who are otherwise sympathetic to the ruling NRM regime, they are hard-pressed to see a more positive outlook.

Part of the problem, or perhaps the foremost problem, is the institutional capture or outright erosion so pervasive and a consequence of the single-minded pursuit of power by the ruling group.  

Just about every key institution of government and state has been denuded or rendered dysfunctional leaving only the president as arguably the only truly consequential institution. 

Museveni has always aspired to be an all-powerful ruler with unlimited powers, an imperial president around whom everything revolves and who holds the ultimate authority on everything that matters. 

But because certain institutional spaces were designed with a certain conservative element biased towards autonomy and a tradition of independence that is hard to whittle down, a few areas of Uganda’s public square have remained somewhat elusive to total capture. 

Until very recently, Makerere University was one institution that Museveni had failed to clasp and bring under his complete grip.

Makerere has always been the jewel in Uganda’s crown. It remained a somewhat sacred site of struggle for a better Uganda even during the worst days of the so-called bad past regimes that are presented as the foil to Museveni’s rulership.  

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, relentless efforts to bring Makerere under the fold of the political establishment did not yield much.

NRM supported guild presidential candidates tended to fare poorly in the polls and the university for the most part remained an opposition hub.  

Attempts to infiltrate the academic staff circles with NRM operatives in the leadership of staff associations did not quite deliver the goods, nor did the government’s concessions to improving work compensation through increased salaries, much deserved, to be sure, and a result of long, hard fights. 

Repeated staff strikes over salaries tended to spark deep irritation from the rulers, but the real fear was always the potential largescale insurrection that starts from Makerere and spreads as to threaten the rulers’ hold on power.

The persistent Makerere headache for the rulers was always down to the calibre of the top university leadership, particularly successive chief executive officers – the vice chancellors.

From Senteza Kajubi and John Ssebuwufu to Livingstone Luboobi and Ddumba Sentamu (impeccable and credible individuals), Makerere vice chancellors simply refused to cave in, to kowtow and dance to the tunes of the rulers.  Instead, they held the line in protecting and defending the sanctity of Makerere as a site of intellectual freedom, pursuit of ideas and students’ unfettered activism that often led to production of very important national leaders. 

All this now appears to have taken a turn under the current leadership. 

Early in his tenure, there was a striking flurry of letters by the vice chancellor threatening students with punishment or even summary suspensions. Similarly, letters threatening academic stuff gave away the authoritarian inclinations in ways that had been alien to the office of the vice chancellor.  

To square the circle, the rulers appointed as chairperson of the University Council, the top decision-making body, someone with no evidence of having held any position comparable or close to that of heading an entity paralleling a nation’s premier university. 

That wasn’t enough. Arguably, the most startling move was the recent appointment of Museveni’s son-in-law to chair the university appointments board, the body that oversees and approves appointments and promotions for all staff at Makerere.

No equivalent experience, no compelling qualifications and a CV that merits occupying the office.  Perhaps if the person was resoundingly qualified, patently competent, with the requisite credentials and an absolute fit for the position, the appointment would have justification.  

What makes this even more brazen and emblematic of the sheer and shameless capture is that Museveni’s son-in-law now chairs the appointments board for a university where the First Lady, is the overall political supervisor.

What is more, the said chair of the appointments board took over that officer from his law firm partner: two individuals, partners in private legal practice, together took turns occupying a public office – one handed over to the other! With a vice chancellor fully committed to the dictates and directives of the rulers, the University Council and appointments board under individuals appointed not for their credentials but rather connection to state house, the values and virtues of a true university campus are in peril.  

A lecturer or professor who is a critical voice on our chequered national politics, one who stands up against the university administration and speaks truth to power is pretty much unwelcome at Makerere.

Moses Khisa, [email protected]

Majority Report