Nkumba University guards beat up student demonstrating against functional fees for online studies

Tension is brewing amongst the student community at the Entebbe road based university after a video in which the university security guards are beating up a student who was demonstrating against the University decision to maintain functional fees for online classes in the upcoming semester despite students having to attend it from home.

The student who received the beating has been identified as Cornelius Muwanika, third year law student had moved with a mattress and jerrycan to demonstrate peacefully over the functional fees that were maintained by Nkumba yet students would not be able to access the university facilities.

In the video a second male student is seen shouting to the guards to stop the assault on Muwanika before he runs off after a security guard calls for him to be beaten up too.

In a letter dated 05^th August 2021 from the students Guild to the University administration seen by Entebbe Post, the Guild president, Sunday Amagule advises the administration to borrow a leaf from other Universities that have either reduced the amount of functional fees or even suspended the fees since students are attending classes from their homes.

“There is no justification whatsoever for the university management or council to take such a position of keeping the fees for all continuing students unchanged payable for next semester as though students shall be granted access to use the university facilities like it has always been in normal time”.

below is the video of the beating

“The general students body is forced to thin k that the university is majorly concerned with collecting tuition from students other than being effective in releasing the students examination results of the previous semesters” part of the letter reads.

In the letter, the university guild threatens to petition the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) if the University fails to respond on the matter in a period of two weeks.

Efforts to get comment from the University leadership were futile since our calls to the acting University Vice Chancellor Mr Jude Lubega’s known contacts went unanswered.