By Andrew Irumba
The Vice Chancellor of Kyambogo University Prof. Eli Katunguka is up in arms with Makerere University and Makerere University Business School (MUBS), whose students he alleges fuel hooliganism at the institution he heads.
Prof. Katunguka claims he has intelligence reports indicating that students from the two institutions are fueling violence against Kyambogo university management and engaging in violent strikes.
There has been unrest at Kyambogo University for the past two days which saw battles break out between Police, Local Defense Unit (LDU) and students pushing for the reinstatement of their guild president, Jonathan Tundulu.
It all started when the Guild Representative Council (GRC) impeached Tundulu citing lack of leadership skills and disrespectful character.
However, the students fraternity accuses management of conniving with external forces to impeach Tundulu, over allegations that he belongs to the ‘People Power’ pressure group led by the Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine. On Friday evening, police picked Tundulu and locked him up at Jinja Road Police Station on charges of inciting violence.
Katunguka explained that the students’ guild cabinet decided to impeach the Tundulu for allegedly concentrating on national politics and abandoning his responsibility towards students.
We have established that on the morning of September 25th, Tundulu called a meeting of his cabinet but he didn’t show up.
On the afternoon of the same day, the GRC constituted and questioned the Guild president for instituting an ‘illegal vetting committee” to assess their performance. Tundulu would later be impeached on October 2, 2019 by an overwhelming majority of 74 GRC members, six abstained while four voted against the impeachment.
According to Katunguka, immediately, after the vote of no confidence was passed, Tundulu’s team rampaged, destroying university property and disrupted lectures.
However, Katunguka has since called for calm in the university. “While students continue to exercise their powers as contained in their guild constitution, I call upon all students to remain calm, concentrate on their studies and avoid all manner of hooliganism,” said Katunguka.
He said those who want to cause trouble will not be allowed and that the police will be on the look out to arrest anyone disrupting the peace of others.
According to Katunguka, Tundulu has appealed against his impeachment, saying the university management and council will now have to decide the fate of the students’ leadership.
“The impeachment process is not yet completed because the president has appealed and he is allowed to appeal. And a provision in their constitution says that once the president is impeached, then fresh elections must be held. That’s the matter we shall discuss later because a fresh election requires about 180 million Shillings which has not been budgeted for,” Katunguka said.
