Row Erupts at Nkrumah Hall of Residence

MAKERERE: A row has erupted at Nkrumah Hall, one of Makerere University’s male halls of residence, between a group which calls itself the “Nkrumah Liberation Movement” (NKRULIMO) and the Students’ Common Room (SCR) Speaker’s office following his failure to organize a by-election for vacant SCR positions.

In mid April this year, the hall Chairman Marvin Mutungi and its Entertainment Minister Atukwase Martin, both of whom had just been elected, were detained by Police and later remanded to Luzira Prison on charges related to the case of David Ojok, an alumnus of the same hall who was murdered by a mob in front of the hall’s entrance. The duo has been in prison since then.

The aggrieved students argue that under the hall Constitution, a by-election is supposed to have been held fourteen days after the Chairman and Entertainment Minister’s positions fell vacant but Taremwa Reid, the Speaker did not bother to organise a by-election after the 14 days’ expiry. In a strongly worded missive signed by Saasi Marvin as Chief Legal Adviser, Serruma Kenneth as Chief Coordinator and Lubwama Stuart as Chief Mobiliser, NKRULIMO group has threatened to impeach Reid within two weeks if he does not heed to their demands which include organizing the by-election as soon as possible. The group asserts that the beleaguered Speaker has failed to perform his duty as expected of him under Articles 19(a) and 14(d) of the hall’s Constitution.

When contacted, NKRULIMO’s chief coordinator Seruuma Ken says that the Speaker’s failure to organize by-elections to elect substantive leaders including the Chairman who heads the SCR cabinet has not only crippled student’s political affairs at the hall but also exposed their financial contributions to mismanagement. The hall’s Constitution requires a Chairman’s signature on key financial transactions concerning SCR contribution money paid by hall members. In its letter, NKRULIMO suggests that the hall administration’s inability to withdraw SCR money without the chairman’s signature may be the reason why students who sleep at the hall continue to be haunted by challenges such as bedbugs and unsanitary conditions which put their health at risk. However, Saasi hints on widely-held allegations that one of the members on the SCR cabinet has been acting as Chairman since May, which he says is illegal if the allegations are true.

According to him, the process through which the acting chairman was installed/confirmed was fraught with irregularities and in contravention of Nkrumah Hall’s Constitution. Further, that in law, one cannot occupy a position in acting capacity “forever” without a time limit. It is widely believed by the hall members Campusbee spoke to that the acting chairman also assumed all duties constitutionally reserved for a substantive chairman including acting as co-signatrory to financial transactions involving SCR finances at the hall. Indeed in NKRULIMO’s letter, the group has made it clear that whoever is “posturing as acting Chairman is no more than an impostor” whom they will hold to account for and make good of any financial or other benefits that he may have illegally enjoyed as acting chairman.

Investigations Campusbee has carried out at the hall indicate that a one Bright Twebaze, the Interior Minister, has been acting as Chairman as well. Some of the students we spoke to expressed concern that Bright may have connived with key people at Nkrumah including the Speaker to defeat the process of organizing a by-election so as to share among themselves the Chairman’s benefits, otherwise the by-election should have happened by now. Campusbee could not independently verify the veracity of these allegations but when it contacted Bright, he said that it is true he acting chairman of the hall. “I have a document that legally puts me in office as acting chairman of Nkrumah Hall. Mutungi authored the document transferring powers to me until he returns. That letter is currently in the Speaker’s office,” he said, in a phone interview. Asked if he was sworn in, he replied: “Have you ever seen any acting leader being sworn in? I was not sworn in.” Campusbee could not reach the speaker for his side of the story

In the premises, NKRULIMO has demanded of the Speaker to call for an urgent meeting of all Nkrumah hall members to discuss the situation.