Makerere University social media residents yesterday woke up to an alarming revelation detailing how internship money that was meant to be wired to students’ accounts last week was instead diverted to organise a better reception for President Y.K. Museveni. The students are expected to report to their internship postings on June 1st.
This exposé was carried by the Facebook page of the official Makerere University newspaper, The Makererean, but was later deleted faster than it had been typed.
According to the exposé, the NRM secretariat at Kyadondo was willing to release about UGX 12M only to cater for the function but the organisers, the NRM Muk Chapter, felt that the President deserved a more befitting function.
Eager to please the NRM honcho, the organisers allegedly settled for a function whose budget stretched well over UGX 30M. To avoid ending up with egg on their face, the organisers allegedly influenced some people in the university management who diverted some of the students internship money to fund the function. It could not be independently verified if the Facebook page that carried this info is truly run by “The Makererean” team or some other elements for their own interests.
It must be noted that during the function held last Saturday, certain sections of students who had come to witness the occasion kept heckling and shouting down the Chairperson of the NRM Muk chapter when he held the mic to speak, alleging that he had stolen their money. Even the president himself was interrupted and forced to break his speech by the same students who kept shouting that the Chairperson had stolen their money until His Excellency asked Prof. Tanga Odoi, the Chairperson of the NRM Electoral Commission, to look into their matter.
However, when Campusbee reached out to the MUK Guild President, H.E. Bala David, for a comment on the same, he totally dismissed the allegations as lacking a spine.
“That’s not true. I am reliably informed that the money is being wired to the eligible students’ individual bank accounts although the system being used is complicated since it’s new. Back then, the University would wire the money to the banks which would then distribute it to the students but this came with a number of challenges so the University decided to wire the money to individual accounts.
For now, the authorities are still verifying who is eligible for the money and their particular bank accounts. Infact, some students are receiving calls to verify their bank accounts especially those who handed in wrong accounts. Once that process is complete, the interns will receive their money, probably next week. Actually, some students have already received their money.” – said Mr. Bala
Who is fooling who?
