Tororo Girls’ School closed over
strike
Publish Date: Nov 21, 2012
Makerere University Jinja campus students strike
Publish Date: Nov 21, 2012
By Donald Kiirya
Makerere University Jinja campus students have protested an increase in the re-takes fees.
The rowdy students stormed Bell Avenue East Street in Jinja arguing that the hike was not fair.
The two-hour Tuesday strike which started at about 1:00pm saw students carry posters, ‘Nyakana should go for change’ and another reading ‘Stop poor communication in Makerere Jinja Campus’.
Brian Mawuso, the Guild president at the Jinja campus explained that the students protested due to many unsolved grievances by the Coordinator Prof. Jockey Baker Nyakana.
He said the grievances include; poor communication, less funding to the guild council, creation of different bank accounts and a poorly stocked library.
Mawuso accused Nyakana of increasing the initial registration re-take fee from sh20,000 to sh140,000.
“At the main campus, students pay sh20,000 per re-take but Nyakana raised the fee to sh140,000. We need change at Jinja campus,” Mawuso said.
As students protested, Anti - riot Police under the command of Jinja District Police Commander, Jonathan Musinguzi, swung into action to calm the students.
Makerere University Jinja campus students have protested an increase in the re-takes fees.
The rowdy students stormed Bell Avenue East Street in Jinja arguing that the hike was not fair.
The two-hour Tuesday strike which started at about 1:00pm saw students carry posters, ‘Nyakana should go for change’ and another reading ‘Stop poor communication in Makerere Jinja Campus’.
Brian Mawuso, the Guild president at the Jinja campus explained that the students protested due to many unsolved grievances by the Coordinator Prof. Jockey Baker Nyakana.
He said the grievances include; poor communication, less funding to the guild council, creation of different bank accounts and a poorly stocked library.
Mawuso accused Nyakana of increasing the initial registration re-take fee from sh20,000 to sh140,000.
“At the main campus, students pay sh20,000 per re-take but Nyakana raised the fee to sh140,000. We need change at Jinja campus,” Mawuso said.
As students protested, Anti - riot Police under the command of Jinja District Police Commander, Jonathan Musinguzi, swung into action to calm the students.
Striking Mulago medical students
sent home
Publish Date: Nov 20, 2012
Uganda Institute of Allied Health and Management Sciences,
Mulago (formerly Mulago paramedical school) has been closed following a two-day
students’ strike over power, poor accommodation and poor administration.
Other issues that the students list include bad food, poor
hygiene and insensitivity of the administration, among others.
All students have been given two hours to peacefully vacate
the school premises after they went rowdy and uncontrollable in the morning
hours. Some students had by 9.00am started leaving the institution
following the directive while others were stranded without means of transport.
“The management has been patient with you all this time
while you refused to attend class. Your complaints will be addressed but not in
one day," announced Alfred Otim, the institution’s deputy principal.
"Your actions are contrary to the purpose of your
presence in this institution. For the safety of the Government, hospital and
patients, the Governing Council of this institution has directed that you go
home with immediate effect.” he said.
He said the students will be informed of further
developments through the media. However, students expressed mixed reactions
following the closure.
“This has affected my academic programme because this is my
month of practice and doing research. I am now worried because the school is
supposed to facilitate me in terms of resources during my training,” said Prosy
Achari, a second year student.
The students allege that their hostel roofs leak and are too
small to accommodate all of them. As a result, some have been forced to sleep
in the Warden’s office, rooms, dining halls while the others either share beds,
sleep on the floor or in corridors of the dark hostels.
During a press briefing on Monday, Otim said power was cut
off in July by UMEME when the institute failed to clear a Sh800m bill
accumulated over the year.
“We are aware of only Sh100m and yet UMEME claims we owe the
company Sh800m,” he said.
This is the second time this semester the students are
striking over the same issues. The first strike was last month.
The students want the school Principal, Wilson Rwandembo
Mugisha fired for being insensitive to their problems.
They appealed to Government and the Ministry of Higher
Education to intervene.
“The important issue is not sending us home but rather
addressing our grievances. I call upon the Government to come to our rescue
because we are tired of listening to empty promises of the school
administration,” said Patrick Kintu, a second year student of occupational
therapy.
Fact file
• UIAHMS was started in 1929 with a laboratory training
programme.
• This was in response to the Sleeping Sickness,
Malaria, diarrhoea and STD epidemics of the time.
• Over time the programmes developed in size and scope and
became organised into an Institution of learning(Uganda Institute of Allied
Health and Management Sciences - Mulago.
• It is the largest Health Training Institution in the
country in terms of the number of students and range of programmes, with a
capacity of 1500.
• The school offers about 21 diploma and certificate courses
under nine departments and they include;
• Post Basic programmes like Diploma in Anaesthesia,
Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy, Diploma in Health Management and
Leadership, Diploma in Ear, Diploma in Health Counseling and Social care.
• Other courses are higher diploma in Medical Laboratory
Technology, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Medical Radiography, Occupational Therapy,
Certificate Environmental Health Sciences, among others.
• The school has two windows of entry;
• Window one is Government sponsorship and constitutes 40%
of the intake.
• Window two is self or private sponsorship where Ugandan
students pay Sh1.5 while international students pay between US$3000 and US$4000
per year.
• The school’s partners include Mbarara University
and Kigali Health institute
IGG says Chogm money may not be
recovered
Publish Date: Nov 21, 2012
By John Semakula
Uganda may not be able to recover sh14b lost
during the preparations for Chogm in 2007, the Inspector General of Government
(IGG) has said.
Justice Irene Mulyagonja, however, said the
country made serious achievements in investigating and prosecuting the
suspects.
She
told New Vision that Ugandans and officials in her office learnt lessons from
the way the cases were handled.
“It
has become clear to the public that no one is above the law. Even ministers and
senior public officers can be prosecuted if they are suspected to have caused
loss to the Government,” Mulyagonja said.
Besides,
she said, the Government recovered some money which it would not have if the
investigations had not been carried out.
Three
hotels, including Serena, Imperial Royale and J&M that caused losses to the
Government during preparations for Chogm, compensated for the losses.
“The
three hotels were made to issue shares to the Government. This might not have
happened hadn’t the IGG intervened,” she said.
On
allegations that her office presents weak evidence against suspects so that
they are acquitted, the IGG said they only go to court after gathering enough
evidence.
“As
to whether the evidence is weak or not, it is for the courts to decide. We submit
ourselves to their jurisdiction and wise opinions about the results,”
Mulyagonja said.
On
the three ministers, who were recently acquitted over Chogm funds, Mulyagonja
said her office was studying the judgment before making a final decision on the
next step to take.
“As
an institution, we presented all the evidence that we felt was good enough,”
she said.
“But
prosecution is not the best option for every incidence of corruption because
the standard of proof is high beyond reasonable doubt,” Mulyagonja added.
42 PhD students stopped
from graduating at KIU
Publish Date: Nov 19, 2012
By John Semakula and John Masaba
The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has directed Kampala International University (KIU) to halt the awarding of 42 PhDs until they are verified.
The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has directed Kampala International University (KIU) to halt the awarding of 42 PhDs until they are verified.
The PhD students were to graduate on Saturday during the university’s ninth graduation ceremony.
But on Friday morning, the executive director of NCHE, Prof. A.B.K Kasozi, wrote to the office of the university’s vice-chancellor stopping the graduation of the 42 students.
In a letter which New Vision saw, NCHE was challenging the university’s ability to pass out such a big number of graduates with PhDs.
“NCHE has received news that you are going to graduate 42 PhD students. Last year, you graduated over 20 PhD students. NCHE is concerned about your capacity to graduate such a number in a span of two years,” the letter read.
Kasozi set out conditions for KIU to beat before the 42 PhD students can be allowed to graduate.
The conditions included submission of the external examiners’ reports on each of the students, the period each student had taken to complete the programme and the list of external and internal examiners. NCHE also stated that at one point, the university may require verifying all the dissertations of the 42 PhD students.
When contacted for a comment, the university’s public relations officer, Chris Mubiru, said they had not yet received the letter and that there was no way they would stop the students from graduating at the last hour.
