The Makerere University management on Wednesday evening released a list of nine suspended students who participated in a demonstration against the 15% tuition increment while 26 others were served with strict warning letters.
The suspension list was topped by a one Frank Bwambale, a journalism scholar and former Editor in Chief of the Makerere University newspaper “The Makererian”. Following his appearance on the suspension list, Bwambale has today come out to wonder how his name appeared yet he never participated in the demo.
According to Bwambale, his name was sneaked onto the list by a one Mathias Ssemanda, the university Digital PR in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor’s personal assistant Gordon Murangira. In his view, Ssemanda has a longtime grudge on him ever since he threatened to publish scandals in MasterCard Foundation scholarships in the Observer newspaper where he works as a freelance writer.
Bwambale claims he was tipped off by someone to investigate and write a story about how MasterCard sponsored students’ tuition was being used by some elements within university management at the expense of the students. He set out to write the story for The Observer and that is when Ssemanda called him threatening his stay at the university.
“The Digital PR of the university harshly cautioned me with insults (I have the phone call recordings with me as we seek legal redress on the matter) Mathias reminded me of how I was suspended a year prior and how I was at campus on the mercy of the Vice Chancellor and his blah blah blah and concluded with a ‘take care msteeew’ comment.” Bwambale wrote on his Facebook account.
Bwambale further explained that he was in a lecture on October 22 when students kicked off the demonstration and he never participated in it no matter how violent it turned. The journalism student apparently tried to avoid the demo following his suspension last year for writing about a strike.
“At the closure of the peaceful march of our disgruntled students, I came across a Daily Monitor article declaring me suspended with Siperia Mollie. On that very day, I was in for the multimedia class of Dr. Fred Kakooza as violence escalated outside. My classmates too came across that very article authored by reporter Damalie Muhakye of The Monitor publication authenticating my suspension. My peers asked what I had done this time round, I held my calm and took a week long leave from the university as more violence was meted on students.” Bwambale added.
The journalism student confidently believes that Mathias Ssemanda and Gordon Murangira took advantage of the situation to add his name on the suspended students’ list while explaining that even the Vice Chancellor (Prof Barnabas Nawangwe) doubts his involvement in violence.
“The VC himself confessed how ‘remorseful’ I’ve been and never party to the prevalent impasse. He too wondered how I got on the list again. An insider told me how Mathias Ssemanda and Gordon Murangira (personal assistant to the VC) had taken advantage of the situation to sneak my name into the list in vengeance to the tense moment I imposed unto them the day I was to do the MasterCard scam story.” The passionate journalist wrote further.
Read his full post here
