MAKERERE – Police and UPDF soldiers have so far arrested 47 students of Makerere University, including the Guild President, as the protest against the 15 percent tuition fees increment policy continues.
The arrests have been made since Tuesday when female students started the demonstration over the 15 percent cumulative tuition increment approved last year by the University council.
Those arrested and detained at Wandegeya Police Station include the guild president Julius Kateregga.
The vice Guild President Ms Judith Nalukwago who had gone to visit the detained students alongside a team of guild representatives were Thursday blocked from accessing them.
At campus, lectures and other businesses have again been paralysed as protestors forced those attending class to join them.
However, the strike which started from Mitchel Hall and College of Agriculture only lasted for less than two hours before it was foiled by the security personnel.
On Tuesday, the university vice-chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said the protestors were wasting their time because the university council had already approved the policy which will see students admitted for any course pay additional 75 percent of their tuition in five years.
The University on Thursday also asked students to shun hooliganism for their studies — noting that such behaviors have no place in the university and that they will never be tolerated.
“Management wishes to warn all those errant students that a return to hooliganism at Makerere will not be tolerated and they should concentrate on their studies,” reads an excerpt from the statement.
The university noted that there has been no increment in fees for any student at Makerere noting that every student joins the university with a fees structure and continues with that until they complete.
Prof. Nawangwe in a telephone interview advised students to concentrate on their books, saying that the policy in question was for long passed by the university council and that it can’t be reversed.
“Tell those few students de-campaigning the policy at this time to stop because it was approved by the university council. They should not use that method they are using,” Prof Nawangwe said
