Makerere sacks 6 staff over sexual harassment

According to the Daily Monitor newspaper, five teaching staff and one non-teaching staff were fired over alleged involvement in the vice.

A total of 30 cases of the vice, according to the newspaper, were recorded in the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate at Makerere University, and, of these, six cases have been dismissed, one case was acquitted, five cases were investigated to the conclusion and these involve three staff and two students, while the rest are still under investigation.

According to the university records, in 2019, six cases were recorded, which was the same case in 2021 and 2023, whereas in 2020 and 2022, the university recorded five and seven cases respectively.

The university has for long had the problem of sexual harassment. Serval cases of female students have been reported some have however gone unpunished.

In 2020, one of the local TV stations during an investigation unearthed a lecturer who had for been sexually harassing a female student.

In the video that went viral, the lecturer who was teaching at the department of sociology was seen making unwanted sexual advances towards the female student.

The matter, upon being revealed, was taken to the university disciplinary committee and the lecturer fired.

Several non-governmental organisations have also in the past called for zero-tolerance policies in institutions of higher learning towards sexual harassment.

Last year, a section of women leaders under a non-government organisation Women of Uganda Network called for strict measures against sexual harassment in schools and universities.