In four different letters sent to the Parliament select committee investigating sexual violence in institutions and schools, four students from Kyambogo University have accused one of the lecturers in the faculty of Engineering for trading marks for sex.
The letters were unveiled by the committee on Wednesday, November 21st where the students named their alleged tormentor (names withheld) for tirelessly demanding for sex from female students in exchange for good marks.
“The vice is also commonly done by the officers who enter the marks in the university data system. Some results of students who perform better are exchanged with those who perform poorly, which affects us badly.” One of the letters partly reads.
The letter adds that sometimes a female student may be given 49 marks, as a trap to force her to surrender herself to the lecturer in order to achieve a top pass mark.
On their plan to move around the country asking about sexual harassment in learning institutions, the committee chaired by Gomba West MP Robinah Rwakoojo interacted with Kyambogo students on Wednesday who feared to talk freely about the growing vice until when the legislators asked them to write letters.
The students further explained that they could not report the vice to the university’s top management because their lecturers could deliberately fail them from graduating. Among the committee was Kioga MP Anthony Okello who questioned the university’s Vice-chancellor Prof Elly Katunguka on how they can produce good students if they award them free marks.
In his response, Katunguka noted that no student has ever reported a case of lecturers demanding for sex in exchange for marks. However, Katunguka added that the university will set up an anti-sexual harassment committee to make sure that the vice is kicked out of Kyambogo University.
