Regarding the ongoing violencwcat Uganda's prestigious Makerere University, it is on public record that University staff have been going on strike almost every year for the last few decades demanding more money (which in turn results in higher tuition fees) and it has always been through discussions that both sides have always peacefully resolved their differences. So why is it that the students go with cardboards on a peaceful strike just once, simply asking for reduction of fees, a pertinent and legitimate concern under this economy, and the response they reportedly get is summary arrests, torture, rape, terror, vandalism and overwhelming brutality by security services? Plus if the student leaders have already been tortured and thrown in the dark dungeons of the state, then who is the university management having discussions with today on the issues raised and to calm the situation? Plus if the strike started off as peaceful, constitutional and without any crime whatsoever, then why this barbaric response? Is unfettered violence and state excesses the only debate that the university management thinks appropriate on these students? We cannot be on the fourth day of a heavy-handed military-style operation against kids who are simply wanting to be able to complete their education without dropping out due to excessive fees, and yet heartless ageing educated adults who once studied there for free under previous governments and today earn disproportionately fat salaries, posh 4 wheel drive vehicles and countless other government funded perks at the taxpayers expense while the rest of the country wallows in poverty, are seemingly counting exclusively on brute force to quash the students legitimate concern just because these are not their own children. Tomorrow how does one start again referring to these young boys and girls as his/her bazzukulu (grandchildren)? I hereby kindly request specifically the First Lady who is also the public servant responsible for the Ministry of Education, to act like the caring mother and grandmother that she appears to be in public, and in line with her ministerial responsibility, to come out and resolve this crisis in a civilized and compassionate manner, instead of keeping quiet up to now. Clearly something inherently wrong is happening under her dock as we speak. Competence in this time of crisis means stopping the militarized crushing of these young innocent citizens of this country, and finding a way to bring normalcy back to Makerere University as quickly as possible, plus personally seeing to it that all the students are released from jail, receive any medical attention they require, have immediate access to their parents, guardians and/or next of kin, and then resume their education right where it had stopped a few days ago before all this anger, anarchy and vindictiveness was senselessly unleashed on them using the state, resulting in so much suffering endured by the students.
Signed: Hussein Lumumba Amin Kampala, Uganda. 25th October 2019.
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