The Speaker of Parliament Hon. Rebecca Kadaga promised to intervene using her position, to halt the decision of Makerere University Administrators to close the university’s Fort Portal campus and shift it to Bushenyi district leaving over 250 students stranded.
The speaker made the commitment after the district chairman Kabarole Mr. Richard Rwabuhinga presented a petition to her during her courtesy call at the district headquarters in Kitumba on Friday.
In the petition, Rwabuhinga requested the speaker to halt the closure of the campus because it was meant to provide services to Rwenzori students who could not afford travelling to Makerere main campus in Kampala.
Other requests in the petition included; government speeding up acquisition of Mountain of the Moon University (MMU) as a Public University, supporting the proposal of Fort Portal tourism city, increasing budget allocation for local governments and salaries for LC3 chairpersons to ease monitoring of government programs for better service delivery.
In her response Hon. Kadaga said parliament resolved that MMU be taken as public university adding that their funding will be catered for this financial year.
On the issue of Makerere University Fort Portal campus, Hon. Kadaga said government will not allow the Institution administrators to close and shift the campus to Bushenyi when the people of Tooro still need
its services.
She described the university’s decision as unfortunate, calling for calm among the stranded students and their parents as parliament sits to debate on the petition to halt its closure.
According to a letter dated May 25th 2016, signed by Charles Barugahare the University Secretary; the campus would not open for the 2016-2017 academic year basing on the poor enrollment since the inception of the campus in 2010 and failure by the community in Fort Portal to embrace the
campus due to the existence of the two private universities. Suitable and convenient premises for the campus would be identified.
Ritah Namisango, the Makerere University Public Relations Officer confirmed the council’s decision but said the students would remain students of Makerere University on the same academic programs but be
relocated to the main campus in Kampala or to Jinja campus.
This however, is being challenged by the continuing students led by Moses Mugisa, who decided to drag the university to Fort Portal High court for what they termed as breach of contract.
Two weeks ago, High court in Fort Portal issued a court injunction blocking Makerere University from carrying out the activities of closing and shifting the university till court passes a ruling.
The Fort Portal campus situated at the Tooro Kingdom headquarters in Mucwa was established to serve students from Kabarole and neighboring districts Kibaale, Ibanda, Hoima, Bundibugyo, Bushenyi, Kasese,
Kyenjojo, Kamwenge and Ntoroko.
There are reports that some tycoons and leaders of Bushenyi have lobbied the Western branch to be shifted to Bushenyi to benefit their area.