In mid October this year, students at Uganda’s oldest university, Makerere, rose up to fight the tuition increment policy which was introduced by the university and required a 15% cumulative increment in the tuition paid every after one academic year.
After sitting down and analyzing this, the students noticed that in the next 5 years the tuition to be paid will be higher more than two times the amount that they pay now and claimed that the future generation of the poor and middle income families wont able to attain higher education from Makerere University.
In the strike, many students were beated up, some suspended, and tortured in many ways. Some alleged that they were sexually abused and their property destroyed mostly in the halls of residence where students accused the army and the police for the brutality.
Despite the compensation done by Gen. Salim Saleh, many students were not catered for and were left with no choice but to think of how to get back their lost property.
Yesterday, 14th December, the parliamentary committee that is responsible for education filed a report against the government of Uganda to compensate all the affected students considering it responsible for the engagement of the UPDF officers in students’ issues that have to be only attended to by the police. The committee added that the assaulted female students could not come out to speak at that time as they feared for their security.
