As Kyambogo University students prepare for the start of the 2012/2013 academic year this month, all seems not to be well with the administration and the university’s academic staff association, KYUASA.
The latest rift between the two university bodies has seen the staff give the administration a two-week ultimatum to sort out the staff’s grievances.
In a meeting convened at the university’s Dining Hall on July 26, members of Kyambogo University Academic Staff Association (KYUASA) raised a list of complaints among which are an immediate 300% salary increment plus top-up increments for the 2012/13 financial year. They also want promotions for the university’s long serving staff and a better working environment among others.
The meeting that was chaired by KYUASA chairman, Dr. Charles Twesigye, expected a range of changes before the start of the academic year on August 30, but to their dismay, to date, none of their complaints has been sorted out.
The university’s vice chancellor Prof. Omolo Ndiege has now been put on the spot to explain why their needs have not been responded to.
The National Union of Educational Institutions (NUEI) has backed the staff’s calls for promotion and top-up increments effective this financial year. The body has been making rounds in the university staff calling for all the staff to forward their complaints to it for representation.
However, in an attempt to resolve the crisis, Prof. Ndiege in a letter dated August 7, 2012 called for a meeting with NUEI staff excluding KYUASA from the negotiations. This sparked more fury from the KYUASA leadership.
Attempts to get Prof. Omolo to comment about his decision to exclude KYUASA were futile as he turned down his appointment due to the various meetings he had.
The row between KYUASA and the vice chancellor is not a new phenomenon. In late July, Prof. Ndiege halted the election process for KYUASA leadership, a matter that ended up in court before court issued an injunction against his interference in the KYUASA affairs.
In the newly endorsed changes in the salaries of staff is a 150% increment on all staff which KYUASA chairman Twesigye argues is peanuts compared to the vice chancellor’s 15 million shillings monthly salary and the various top-up allowances he gets.
Another letter dated July 26th from Kizito and Lumu Advocates, the lawyers representing KYUASA, faults the vice-chancellor for not responding to letters issued to him by KYUASA and writing various letters to the chancellor and his secretary bent on frustrating KYUASA activities.
The rift at the university remains unresolved, however, with an expected intervention from the minister of education Jessica Alupo, to whom the KYUASA members sent their petition. Alupo has not commented on this story but John Chrisestom Muyingo, the state minister for higher education, says the ministry has not received any petition from Kyambogo lecturers. He however said he has sent a team from the ministry to Kyambogo University and is yet to get feedback.
Earlier in the past semester, Kyambogo students went on strike in which they burnt two university vehicles accusing the administration of failing to address their grievances.
