A sexual harassment scandal is brewing at Makerere University, sucking in the current Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof. Nawangwe Barnabas, former VC Prof. Dumba Sentamu, former presidential candidate Prof. Venascias Baryamureeba, former chief of security Mr. Jackson Mucunguzi, and Mr. Goddy Muhumuza the head of MAK’s legal department. The five names dominate the scandal exclusively narrated to Campus Bee by the female student-victim, whose identity we have been asked to redact.
BACKGROUND
Sometime in October 2012, the student in question was the victim of a rape attempt made by one of her lecturers at the University. The student says that although she tried so hard to keep this event to herself, she was disheartened when the perpetrator came to her lecture room a few days later and declared before the whole class that she was trying to frame him for sexual harassment.
The perpetrator’s action of discrediting her among her course mates, and the immediate backlash she suffered from her fellow students prompted the student to file a formal complaint with the Dean of her College against the lecturer in January 2013.
In a shocking twist, rather than investigate the student’s complaint, the College reacted by immediately expelling her from the University in a bid to kill off the complaint. The reason given for this expulsion was ‘poor academic performance,’ although the student’s CGPA was way above the 2.0 threshold below which an academically weak student is liable for discontinuation as per the relevant policies governing the institution.
For the next twenty (20) months after filing her complaint, attempts by the student to get the complaint investigated and ruled upon by appropriate bodies of the University hit a dead end until the Speaker of Parliament Hon. Rebecca Kadaga intervened.
On 9 December 2014, following pressure exerted on him by the student and the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. John Dumba Sentamu set up an ad hoc anti-sexual harassment committee to investigate the student’s complaint of sexual harassment and the circumstances under which she had been expelled from the university.
On 4 May 2015, Prof. Dumba communicated to the student’s College informing them that the ad hoc committee had after conducting “comprehensive investigations” into the student’s complaint concluded that “…there was an environment of sexual harassment which adversely affected [the student],” and that “the ad hoc committee had resolved to reinstate the student back into the university”.
Despite upholding her complaint and reinstating her into the university, the student disagreed with the modalities of her reinstatement as she felt that the university had denied her what she needed most: protection.
The student adds that besides being dissatisfied by the way the committee handled investigations into her complaint, she has to date been denied a copy of the committee’s report to find out what action was taken against the lecturer, among other issues, despite repeated formal requests for the same.
Although the University had an anti-sexual harassment policy in place at the time, it appears that this Policy was flouted while addressing the student’s complaint. For example, the Policy requires “any complaint of sexual harassment to be treated with diligence, and investigations into the same must be conducted promptly and thoroughly,” but this this appears to not have been done.
Further, the Policy prohibits retaliation against a student who reports a case of sexual harassment, yet it appears that this is exactly what was done to the student who was expelled immediately after filing her complaint.
ENTER PROF. BARYAMUREEBA AND UTAMU
Prof. Baryamureeba is the founder of the Uganda Technology & Management University (UTAMU) and was at the relevant time its VC. Shortly before then, he had held a senior leadership position at the College at which the student’s complaint arose.
According to confidential documents seen by Campus Bee, as soon as Makerere explelled her, the student was shocked to receive an email entitled “Opportunity to complete your degree from UTAMU”. This email was sent to the student at 7pm on 11/12/2014 via email address deancs@utamu.ac.ug, signed off by Dr. John Ngubiri as one of UTAMU’s Deans.
In the email, UTAMU’s Dr. Ngubiri enticed the student to join UTAMU by conveniently informing her about the availability of an opportunity to complete [the degree she had been doing at MAK] at UTAMU under the auspices of a credit transfer policy whereby the student could transfer 40% of her completed course load at MAK to UTAMU.
In a shocking twist, as the student claims, Dr. Ngubiri later turned up during the ad hoc committee’s deliberations in January 2015 and testified against the student. According to the student, the turning point came when the committee tasked Dr. Ngubiri to explain his email to the student, something he failed to do which got the committee to realize that “something was wrong”.
According to the student, the fact that UTAMU’s Dr. Ngubiri accessed her hitherto private records, learnt of her expulsion and went ahead to retrieve her email address before asking her to join UTAMU is by all accounts intriguing. Could Prof. Baryamureeba as the founder of UTAMU have used his connections at MAK to collude with its officials so as to not only influence the student’s expulsion but also take advantage of her situation to generate extra tuition fees for UTAMU?
ENTER PROF. NAWANGWE, AFANDE MUCUNGUZI & MR. GODDY MUHUMUZA
Having hit a deadlock after the University had failed to heed to some of her demands following the ad hoc committee’s ruling, the student says that she resorted to benching various officials of the University for help but without success.
In frustration after having moved to every possible office at the University without being helped, the student decided to commit suicide.
On 5 September 2016, the student wrote a letter to Afande Mucunguzi informing him that she was going to set herself on fire as a form of protest against the University for mishandling her complaint.
“I stand to represent the voiceless whose fate was determined unjustly, those whose cases [of sexual harassment] went unattended to, and those who went away silently dumping their careers because no one listened to them,” read part of the student’s letter to afande Mucunguzi.
On reading the student’s letter, the student says Mucunguzi appeared more excited at the prospect of finally getting a way of “fixing this man Prof. Dumba” than actually helping the student out of her conundrum.
“He led me from Makerere Police Post where I had found him straight to Prof. Nawangwe’s office at the main building,” narrates the student. “On reaching Prof. Nawangwe’s office, we found the Prof. in a meeting with the head of MAK’s legal department, Mr. Goddy Muhumuza,” she continues.
“Mucunguzi then asked me to wait outside so that he could first have a word with the two men. After what seemed like eternity, he popped his head out the door and signaled me in. As soon as I entered, Mr. Goddy greeted me with a baptism of fire. He backed at me saying the University had already ‘done everything it could do’ for me. He sarcastically asked me to go to Court if I was unhappy, saying they would defeat me from there, too. During all this time, Prof. Nawangwe and Mucunguzi were quiet.”
Prof. Nawangwe was quiet this time because I had already interacted with him in the recent past about my case and bitterly complained about the arms-length treatment he had accorded my complaint. I had attempted to give him documents regarding my case but he had coldly and uninterestedly told me to ‘drop them at the Secretary’s’.
The student says that she believes that at the time of these interactions, the relationship between Prof. Dumba and Prof. Nawangwe who was DVC F&A at the time was quite testy. In Mucunguzi, Prof. Nawangwe had found an ally against Prof. Dumba. “I think those two acted like they wanted to help me not really because they wanted me to get justice for what had been done to me, but merely because my case gave them an opportunity to expose Prof. Dumba’s weaknesses.
Reacting to a story published by the BBC citing allegations of rampant sexual harassment at the University as quoted in the Visitation Committee report recently released by the late Rwendeire Commission, Prof. Nawangwe tweeted saying the allegations are false. Our efforts to reach Prof Nawangwe for a comment were futile as his known phone number was unavailable by press time.
THE COURT CASE
Yesterday 29 January 2018, the student’s lawyers M/s. Centre for Legal Aid formally filed an application at the High Court (Civil Division) against Makerere University. In the suit, the student’s lawyers seek an order permitting the student to protect her identity by suing the University pseudonymously “for its failure to protect her from sexual harassment at the University between 2012 and 2017; failure to investigate and discipline the perpetrator; failure to deliver and implement comprehensive reparations for the student; and violation of the student’s rights to health, dignity, education, equality and non-discrimination, among others.”
Campus Bee understands that the lawyers are yet to secure a hearing date for this case.
GLOBAL BACKDROP: THE #MeToo CAMPAIGN
The student’s revelations come at a time when the world is grappling with major sexual harassment allegations made against USA’s A-list celebrities.
Under the #MeToo hashtag, a number of influential women in the USA have come out accusing celebrities such as Harvey Weinstein of having made unwanted sexual advances towards them, with some of the advances said to have been made more than seven years back.
The #MeToo campaign has dominated global headlines in the past few weeks and has caused the shaming, resignation or conviction of many of the alleged perpetrators.
We shall bring you details of the student’s matter as it unfolds.
