Ugandas top university Makerere to re-open

Makerere 

Makerere University staff yesterday assented to the council salary proposals that will see the institution reopen soon.

Mr Louis Kakinda, the academic staff association spokesperson, yesterday said: “We are concluding the meeting that has come up with a monumental agreement that will lead to the reopening of the university. Muasa and council have agreed on a tentative reorganisation to find salary incentives for all staff.”

Although Kakinda declined to give details of the agreement, he added that both the academic and support staff will meet on Thursday to adopt council proposals before the university is reopened.

“We shall have a meeting on Thursday for a joint assembly and it’s what will come out from this meeting that will determine whether the university will be reopened or not,” Mr Kakinda said soon after the meeting. He added: “The incentive that we have agreed on will replace the 100 per cent demand we are demanding. It was an in-house affair and we don’t want to tire it apart. We thought government would come in and help to fund the university but since government advised us to rear goats, we have found some goats at Makerere. But our demand is still on.”

Hope
Prof John Ddumba-Ssentamu, the university vice chancellor, yesterday confirmed that their meeting was materialising and that the university would reopen on Thursday after a board meeting. The council chairperson, Dr Charles Wana-Etyem, instituted a sub-council committee to look at the university internal budget to find the staff salary demand after government insisted there was no money to increase their salaries.

Subsequently, the government gave a two-weeks ultimatum to the governing body to ensure that the university is reopened. The committee, titled the Kabaasa staff loads and cost, is a sub-committee of the university council technical committee on staff enhancement.

In its findings, it proposed a 60 per cent salary increment for senior academic staff at the level of lecturers and above in humanity based disciplines, a 50 per cent increment for senior science lecturers and 30 per cent for assistant lecturers and below.