Makerere Convocation asked to account for sh600m

A January 2 letter from the council chairperson, Lorna Magara, to Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the vice-chancellor, indicates that the alumni association has not provided accountability for the funds advanced to them from the university budget.

It is against this background that Magara has asked Prof. Nawangwe to submit a schedule of all payments from the University to the convocation over the specified period.

Nawangwe said that he is yet to write to convocation to formally request for the information.

Meanwhile, the outgoing chairperson of the University Convocation who also doubles as the chairperson of NRM Electoral Commission, Tanga Odoi said he is yet to receive the said letter from the Council chairperson.

There was chaos at Makerere University on Friday as the alumni and staff elected new leaders of their umbrella body; the Convocation. The chaos resulted from a standoff between the current leaders who were organising the election and some of the candidates.

Throughout the day, the Annual General meeting failed to agree on anything starting with the agenda of the day. Many members led by the candidates highlighted numerous hitches that would not enable the election to go on smoothly.

Led by former Ntungamo Municipality MP Gerald Karuhanga, the group asked the current chairman Tanga Odoi and the returning officer Mukadasi Buyinza to postpone the exercise so as to rectify the anomalies they had identified. By virtue of being the Academic Registrar, Buyinza is the secretary to Convocation and the returning officer.

But the pleas fell on deaf ears as both Odoi and Buyinza insisted that voting must take place and that those who were not interested should walk away. This prompted Karuhanga’s supporters to start shouting interrupting the exercise for about 30 minutes.

To break the impasse, Police and the military that had been deployed in their numbers, stormed the Auditorium of the Prof. Yusuf Kironde Lule building where the meeting was taking place and violently dragged out everybody who was shouting.