The Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe has come out to clarify that some staff members who appeared on the suspended list by the university council deliberately failed to renew their contracts.
While appearing on NTV’s Fourth Estate on Sunday night, Nawangwe revealed that among those include Dr. Stella Nyanzi, the controversial researcher who is currently detained in Luzira prison. According to Nawangwe, Nyanzi’s contract expired in 2016 and the university is currently investigating the circumstances under which her name remained on payroll.
“The contract expired in 2016. We are investigating the circumstances under which we continued haggling with a person whose contract actually had expired.” Nawangwe revealed.
The show moderator, Charles Mwanguhya questioned Nyanzi’s sacking in the middle of controversy with both the government and her former bosses. Nawangwe on the other hand clarified that her contract expired in a bad time, something he thinks has nothing to do with the controversy.
“The contract expired irrespective of those things and by the way there are so many people at Makerere who are criticizing the government but nobody has touched them. So the fact is that her contract expired, it is just that it was not the right time but it expired and she has not requested it to be renewed.” Nawangwe said.
Following the sacking of 45 Makerere staff members, Nawagwe went ahead to reveal that the university wants more staff to run daily business but they are not going to retain indisciplined members. He however advised the sacked members to take their matters to the tribunal instead of running to parliament.
