Of the thirteen candidates cleared to contest for the 92nd Makerere University Guild Presidency, Hannah Karema Tumukunde has announced her candidature under one of the most striking campaign slogans in recent guild election memory: Reboot The Ivory Tower.
The metaphor is deliberate and pointed. Just as a computer is rebooted to clear malfunctions and restore full functionality, Tumukunde is running on a platform that calls for a fundamental reset of how Makerere University is administered — addressing what she describes as accumulated inefficiencies, managerial glitches, and a culture of empty promises that has for too long gone unchallenged.
Here is what she is running on.
Tumukunde opens her manifesto with a direct shot at university management, accusing it of making promises to students that are never kept — the most recent example being commitments around the return of physical or open-air campaigns.
“There is an urgent need to keep management in check. Makerereans are not young children to be lied to,” her manifesto states. “We must envoke ancestral disciplinary measures to stop this endless deceit.”
It is the kind of language that resonates with a student population that has grown increasingly frustrated with a gap between what management announces and what it delivers.
One of the most concrete grievances in Tumukunde’s manifesto concerns government-sponsored students, who currently receive only UGX 3,000 per day — a figure she describes as grossly inadequate given the cost of living in Kampala.
She is not wrong. Three thousand shillings in Kampala in 2026 does not buy a student a decent meal, let alone cover transport, toiletries, or any of the other basic costs of daily campus life.
Her position is clear: she will compel the Ministry of Finance and the legislature to prioritise student welfare and push for allowances to be raised to at least UGX 15,500 per day — a figure that, while still modest, would at least reflect the economic reality students are living in.
In what may be one of the most quietly scandalous issues on the Makerere campus, Tumukunde highlights the matter of the red academic gown — an item that freshers pay UGX 21,160 for upon joining the university, but which has not been distributed to students for the past three years, without any justifiable explanation from management.
“These gowns are our prestigious emblem and unique identifiers,” she states. “We want our gowns back or have this money deducted from our functional fees so that we procure them by ourselves.”
It is a small but telling example of the kind of institutional accountability gap her campaign is built around.
Tumukunde does not shy away from the food crisis that many Makerere students navigate daily. Her manifesto acknowledges directly that the majority of students cannot afford a decent meal — a situation she attributes partly to the high rents that food vendors are required to pay to Mak Holdings, the university’s entrepreneurial arm, which in turn drives up the prices students pay for food.
Her proposed solution is a food court model where vendors pay subsidised rent, enabling them to offer more affordable meals to students.
Perhaps the most politically charged section of her manifesto concerns what she calls the systematic strangulation of student political life at Makerere.
Following the amendment of the guild constitution in 2022 and the enforcement of the 2022 Makerere University Students’ Guild Statute, Tumukunde argues that students have been left to “suffocate in a political web manned by the administration.” The restriction that prevents Year One students from contesting for guild positions has, she argues, created a pipeline of inexperienced leaders who are more susceptible to management influence.
The removal of students’ right to freely associate with political parties compounds the problem further.
“When the system is finally rebooted, we shall have this political freedom restored,” her manifesto pledges.
Tumukunde is also pushing for a policy reform that addresses one of the most distressing outcomes a final year student can face — failing a single paper in their final year and being forced to wait an entire additional year to graduate.
She is advocating for the introduction of supplementary examinations for final year students, so that those who fail a paper can resit and graduate in time rather than losing a full academic year over a single course.
It is a reform that would directly affect hundreds of students every graduation cycle.
On the perennial question of tuition and exam access, Tumukunde says she will advocate for the full implementation of the 60 percent tuition policy — which allows students to sit their examinations upon completion of at least 60 percent of their tuition dues.
“Students don’t have to be at the mercy of the administration during the examination season,” her manifesto states. “We need to create assurance that students will always do their papers without first having to write letters to the administration to permit them. Education is a right and it should not only be accessible but also affordable for all.”
Hannah Karema Tumukunde is running a manifesto-heavy, issues-driven campaign — one that identifies specific, concrete problems and proposes specific, concrete solutions. From the red gown refund to supplementary exams, from food court subsidies to political freedom, her platform speaks directly to the daily frustrations of the average Makerere student.
Whether it is enough to win the 92nd Guild Presidency against twelve other candidates will depend on how well she translates her manifesto into a campus-wide movement.
The campaign has officially begun. The rebooting, she says, starts now.
