Why Museveni closed Makerere University

The Police on Tuesday fired tear gas, water cannons and gunshots to stop hundreds of students protesting the refusal by lecturers’ to teach them.

The anti-riot police which was later joined by the military police shot several times in the air and pepper sprayed the angry students who had gone on a looting spree in the university suburbs of Kikoni. Wandegeya and Kikumi-Kikumi.

The students went on a rampage, burning car tires and and breaking into peoples’ shops and houses near the campus gates.

The protesting students clad in their red gowns blocked major roads leading into and out of the university including Kimera Road that connects Kasubi to the small gate along Sir Appolo Kaggwa Road, thereby paralyzing business and traffic in Kampala for hours.

The police spent the greater part of the day clearing the barricades from several roads leading to the university that were placed by students who would later retreat to their hostels including Douglas Villa, Kann hostel and Prince hostel among others.

During the fracas, a number of students were seriously injured and were rushed to university hospital opposite the main gate of the university.

This situation forced the University Council, the university’s highest decision making body into an emergency council meeting to forge a way a forward.

The meeting chaired by the Chairperson Eng. Dr. Charles Wanna Etyem was attended by the Uganda Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana who later addressed the students and appealed to them to remain calm as the university and the government find a lasting solution.

Later the university public relations officer Ritah Namisango  released a statement signed by the council chairperson Eng. Dr. Charles Wanna Etyem maintaining its 28^th, October 2016  resolution of paying the staff incentive allowances for one month amounting to sh3.7b from the sh 28b that the lecturers’ are demanding for 8 months.

With the continued stalemate, President Yoweri Museveni stepped in Tuesday evening, closing the campus.

Besigye to meet striking Makerere university students

The former presidential flag bearer of forum for Democratic change Dr. Kiiza Besigye is set to meet Makerere university students to forge a way forward following a directive for the indefinite closure of the university by the president.

Besigye tweeted Tuesday that parents and guardians pay a lot of money hence they deserve better.

In a show of condemnation, Besigye also tweeted a video of a student who was brutally arrested during the Tuesday demonstration.