The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It was business as usual on Wednesday at Makerere University as the Ivory Tower went down. This leaves the university without an Ivory Tower for the first time in 81 years since its construction.
A number of students told URN that they were engrossed in their end of first semester exams to notice the demolition of the iconic tower.
The tower which was gutted by fire on September 20, 2020, has been the most outstanding feature of the main university building.
A few of the students who witnessed the demolition said that it was more emotional to see the tower gutted by fire compared to its demolition.
Joy Tumwebaze, a second-year who was revising at the freedom square which is directly opposite the main building, noted that the demolition of the tower reminded her of a number of unanswered questions about the fire.
Shatrah Babirye, another second-year student who was at the freedom square as well said that it is only a matter of time before the icon is restored.
Aloysius Kwitonda, one of the lecturers who was busy coordinating examinations during the demolition of the tower, noted with regret that he felt nothing for the icon as the glory of the institution had long faded before the tower burnt.
“Nothing surprises me these days or moves me, people’s manners are rotten. Even the cause of the fire should have been malicious. I have no more attachment to it,” said Kwitonda.
Julius Katerega, a former Guild President at Makerere whose regime witnessed the fire at the Ivory Tower, said that even while the tower was being demolished, his source of strength is that it would be set up again.
Mukasa Mbidde also a former Guild President at Makerere University in 2001 explained that the demolition of the tower was symbolic of how the University is breaking down into an ignoble institution. He added that it would take lots of prayers to see a new, restored Makerere when the Ivory tower rises again.
Like Mbidde, Charles Rwomushana, also a former Guild President said that since Makerere University is no longer the institution he knew back then, it would be better for the Ivory Tower to be completely erased.
“Makerere is no longer the institution I knew, people are now money-minded other than caring about quality, and I do not care about the demolition of the tower,” said Rwomushana.
The building with its unique 20th-century British architectural designs was one of the university’s oldest structures, the signature symbol of Uganda’s oldest higher institution of learning.
It was completed in 1941 with funding from the Colonial Development Bourse, housing several offices including the main hall, printery and vice chancellor’s office among others.
While all of these have since been relocated to Central Teaching Facility 1, the university was allocated Shillings 21 Billion by the government to set up a new structure.
The University company, which handed over the site to Excel Company Limited in March, hopes to have the main building including the Ivory Tower reconstructed with the same exterior design by October 8, 2022.
The demolition exercise is still ongoing to pave way for the reconstruction works.
*****
URN
Òh dear
We need it back, a reminder of what it used to be: structure function and historical events
Just recently, I was glad to see a former guild president currently living abroad, in the context of his supporters standing opposite that building, shouting his name,…, “our man”
Then a dean of students, “uncle” beckoning to the police to descend on to the group with trancheons!
The building that reminded us of different mile stones in the course of accomplishing our aspirations.
We pray it reappears in its “real form”
It was tough for the students who nursed wounds from those truncheons
“Uncle” please do not mind, we became parents and are nursing permanent damage to knee joints of our children; inflicted from the very place that you otherwise made convenient for our stay.
The main building had been reminding us of all the ups and downs