Uganda: President orders nation’s top university shut

By Halima Athumani

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - Amid strikes, violence, and a heavy security presence, Uganda’s top university has been shut down indefinitely.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, President Yoweri Museveni stated that using his powers under Uganda’s Constitution, he decided to close Makerere University “with immediate effect, until further notice in order to guarantee safety of persons and property”.

On Tuesday the university was turned into a battlefield, as both military and armored police trucks and teargas trucks were deployed to quell a violent strike by students demanding to be taught.

Last week lecturers at Uganda’s ivory tower went on strike, demanding that the university pay them their incentives totaling over $8 million that have been accumulating for the last eight months.

This followed a heated meeting between the lecturers under their umbrella body, the Makerere University Academic Staff Association, and the University Council.

But council Chairman Charles Wana Etyem told the lecturers they would only be paid once the money was found.