The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
“There are people out there who would like to come to Uganda and they are good administrators. It’s up to this committee to really get them.”
Baryamureeba says the search committee could go to universities like Gulu and Busitema where there are young and emerging academics and court them.
According to Baryamureeba, when you court these people, the search process is enriched as opposed to huddling around academics who have been out and about in these same institutions. As is the case whenever a hunt for a VC is on in any public university, seasoned professors at the same university tend to be the most interested in the job, Baryamureeba says.
Indeed, Katunguka, Kyambogo’s acting VC and Prof Geoffrey Bakunda, the Dean Faculty of Marketing and Hospitality Management at Makerere Business University School (MUBS), which is less than a kilometre away from Kyambogo, emerged top on the previous shortlist.
Baryamureeba also faulted the Kyambogo Senate for submitting two names only to the council in the previous round. “The role of senate is to submit three names to council,” he said, “that is what they should have done, not to drop one candidate because they did not feel he was adequate. It is upon council to vet.”
However, John Okedi, the Chairperson of the Kyambogo University Council, the University highest decision making body, feels that the university has been judged harshly.
“The process was stopped by a court injunction,” he says, “The new search committee was appointed in December 20 and it has until the end of March to find a Vice Chancellor. You should give it time to finish its work before you can charge it.”
He added; “Those experts who are saying it is time we change how to look for a VC do not know what they are talking about. We are doing this search in accordance with the law, the Universities and other Tertiary Institutions Act. We cannot go against the law.”
For Okedi, those who are saying that the University authorities have taken too long don’t understand what is going on.
“You know everyone wants to be involved in Kyambogo matters and some people do not even wish Kyambogo well,” he said.
Last year in an interview with The Independent, the Minister of State for Higher Education, John Chrysostom Muyingo, also said that the law must strictly be followed and that the council should take action against anyone who violates it during the process.
As the clock ticks and tensions rise, it remains to be seen whether Kyambogo University authorities can trump intrigue and put in place a Vice Chancellor, who can start shepherding the institution in the right direction.
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editor@independent.co.ug
