Gov’t looks on as Kyambogo University continues to sink in corruption and power struggles

Kampala:  The architects of the merger of three institutions to form Kyambogo University in 2003 could not have anticipated the chaos that is currently bedeviling the institution.

 For almost two years now, the institution continues to make headlines; with students and lecturer’ strikes, protracted legal battles, interdictions, arrests of officials and yet this is all just a tip off the iceberg.

 So much is amiss that belligerent events continue to unfold as government looks on, indolently hinting on a solution in the offing while other authorities like Police, Auditor General, and Inspector General of Government (IGG), tasked last year by Parliament to keenly scrutinise the problems of Kyambogo, are yet to produce as single report.

 A report released in 2007 by the IGG following the first major strike that led to a temporary closure of institution was simply shelved, and recommendations to Parliament provided therein to take action were ignored which now casts more doubt on the upcoming reports.

 What went wrong?

Ms Jessica Alupo, the minister of education and sports, thinks the process of merging these institutions “was never streamlined at all.”

 The institutions: Uganda Polytechnic Kyambogo (UPK), the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo (ITEK) and the Uganda National Institute of Special Education (UNISE), all located on Kyambogo hill were brought under one roof, a move that sought to create a third public university but was the start of problems.

 They were established: UPK in in 1928, ITEK in 1945, UNISE in 1988.

 UPK started as a small technical school on Makerere hill and was transferred to Kyambogo hill in 1958 as Kampala Technical Institute, before it was renamed Uganda Technical College and finally UPK.

 ITEK started as a government Teacher Training College in 1945 at Nyakasura, in Fort Portal, and was transferred to Ruharo and then Ntare hill, all in Mbarara town, before being transformed into a National Teachers' College and later ITEK in 1989.

 Academically, ITEK was affiliated to Makerere University and was already offering the Bachelor of Education degree on mature entry and in terms of infrastructure had the best buildings.

On the other hand UNISE started as a Department of Special Education at ITEK in 1988, and later became an autonomous institution by an Act of Parliament in 1998.

 The Education Minister then, Prof. Khiddu Makubuya, issued a statutory instrument on July 18, 2003, forming the university, in accordance with the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act of 2001 and the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions' (Establishment of Kyambogo University) instruments of 2003.

 Although this establishment had been conceived as far back as 1999, implementation was met by resistance from UNISE, which enjoyed privileges like funding from donor agencies like DANIDA, NORAD, among others.

 ITEK on the other hand boasted of the best physical structures which gave them an upper hand to house the headquarters of the university, including the Vice Chancellor’ seat.

 Ideally, the three institutions were at different stages of development, had different administrative settings, ambitions, staffing; which were all ‘hastily’ weaved together.

 “The semi-autonomy of the three was underscored,” Ms Alupo acknowledged.

It took the task force led by Prof. Albert Lutaalo Bbosa; from ITEK three years to convince UNISE join the university propositions.

 The task force focused only on the merger but not a road map, including guidelines nor the necessary ‘structures’ that would aid the institution throughout its germination.

 “No clear guidelines spelling out a coalescing administration were put in place,” said one academic staff, Paul Isiko.

 For example, in ITEK one required a Master’s degree to qualify as a lecturer while in UPK and UNISE senior lecturers needed only Bachelor’s degrees.

 “While combined it meant some lecturers were more qualified than the others for the same job at different payments, Isiko added. “The entire process of merging was not given time to evolve.”

 The merger was also commanded by ITEK, which boasted of highly qualified staff and took first all the ‘juicy positions’ which bred unparalleled sentiments at the onset.

“Other institutions, though silently felt isolated with a likely hyperbole for separation,” Mr Isiko said.

 Chaos, intrigue and greed set in

Paul Okwir, a former administrator at the University, however pours cold water on repeated assertions that the ill-equipped merger is to blame for the crises dogging Kyambogo.

 “The problems there are more of self-centered. Who is eating what, and with whom,” Mr Okwir, acknowledged, “People who have been there since the merger have mastered their art of greed and whoever threatens this scheme becomes an enemy.”

 He adds that, “well” it is still comprehensible that strong institutional frameworks were not drawn while conceiving the merger, “but management has over the years addressed these institutional issues.”

 “To my knowledge, there is a lot of staff redundancy, duplication of roles and underpayment of staff, which has resulted into greed, and fighting personal wars.”

 In 2005 the Vice Chancellor Prof. Lutaalo undertook to harmonise the entire salary, remuneration and employment systems, but still traces of staff from ITEK remained visible as the most qualified and most paid.

The staff eventually called for the sacking of the VC in 2006 only to be opposed the Education Minister; Namirembe Bitamazire saying the manner they wanted him out was illegal.

 In 2007 the staff went on strike accusing Prof. Lutaalo (the only professor at the time) of incompetence due to old age, nepotism and maladministration, leading to closure for a few months.

 Prof. Lutaalo was eventually sacked along with the Bursar Mr David Biganja and the university secretary Ms Gorreti Katushabe, and a committee known as ‘Validation Committee; constituted to look into the staff grievances like salaries, promotions and integration of staff.

 The State minister of Higher Education, Mr Gabriel Opio, called for investigations by the Inspectorate of Government into the situation, but the report was eventually shelved after sanity returned.

 Dr. Mpande Basiima, a former principal at UPK and Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Finance and administration, was then chosen acting Vice Chancellor in 2008, but was later thrown out following controversies on salary payments and distribution, staff integrations, which was following the Auditor General’s report on monies meant for salaries that President Museveni had given to the university.

 The exit of Dr. Mpande left Dr. (now Prof.) John Opuda-Asibo, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of academics as the acting Vice chancellor while the position was being advertised.

 “Dr. OPuda equally wanted the job he was acting in but the search for a substantive VC was taking place,” one staff member recalls. “No wonder he was instrumental in causing later chaos, and fighting Ndiege but unluckily he could also not get the job.”

 Need for an outsider

In face of the status quo, essentially administrative, academic, and infrastructural wrangles, management sought a ‘messiah’ who could unite them again, iron out their differences and work for the furtherance of the Institution.

 By all means the messiah had to be someone from the outside, unknown to the history and problems of the institution.

 Eventually in January 2009 a 50 year old year old Kenyan national, Prof. Omolo Isaiah Ndiege was appointed as the new Vice Chancellor. He had been an associate professor of organic chemistry at the University of Nairobi until 2007, and a visiting professor at the departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology at Gulu and Makerere universities respectively up to 2008.

 The fall out with the Ndiege

By 2011 Prof. Ndiege was sitting in a ‘hot seat’ facing opposition from majorly the staff, who were accusing him of being a dictator.

 But insiders say, Prof. Ndiege found camps in administration which he was tasked to man.

 “This was supposed to be done without compromising, favouring or annoying either camps, but such middle road is hard to take,” one administrator who requested not to be named, narrated. “Incidentally things fell out of his hand when he got aligned to one side in trying to right a few wrongs of another, and worst of all tightening bolts on all loose ends where monies were being grossly siphoned.”

 “We really appreciate Ndiege for his few achievements but at this time, he must go,” said Jackson Betihamah, chairman of Kyambogo University Senior Administrative Staff Association (Kyuasa).

 “He failed to put into context the problems affecting staff members and he will never change even if we gave him a chance.”

But Prof. Ndiege indicates that campaigns to kick him out started in the first month of his tenure.

 “I don’t know what the staff problem is, but all I know is that my methods and plans were for the good of Kyambogo.”

 Subsequently the campaigns hit fever pitch in 2012 after the lecturers under their respective associations, Kyambogo University Academic Staff Association (Kyuasa), National Union of Educational Institutions (NUEI) and NUEI, lay down tools and called for his suspension.

 They among others accused him of running down the institution through a domineering leadership style complemented by intimidations and bullying; that could not be sustained any longer.

 Gripped by panic the university council (the top decision making body), constituted a seven member ad hoc committee to investigate the claims and offer recommendations.

  The committee’s report led by Engineer Frank Ssebowa exonerated Prof. Ndiege on a list of accusations but faulted him on lacking inter-personal skills that included poor work methods, witch-hunting some staff and poor handling of top management.

 The report further recommended a three months’ amnesty to Mr Ndiege to change his ways; which the staff refused to comprehend saying he would ‘harass’ them more and thus resumed the strike, which led to the closure of the university for a month.

 The university council voted in October that Prof. Ndiege be sent on forced leave in ‘Public Interest along with 11 other senior officials accused of abetting mismanagement, but the later were later secretly bounced back in office.

 A Parliamentary Committee on Education and Sports investigating the outrages at Kyambogo produced a report; which similarly cleared the embattled Ndiege on some wrong doings and agreed that, “some of the problems attributed to him were beyond a one man’s making.”

 The only hope currently lies in the IGG, Justice Irene Mulyagonja’ report which is expected to specifically pin officials behind the curtains of corruption, power struggles, and intrigue.

 Prof. Ndiege’ return in office from the suspension has triggered off another confrontational strike as the staff determinedly want him fired or “will never return to offer services.”

 Students are have been left stranded, pondering what is the next step as November 25 as been set as the examination date.

Side bar

Insiders also point to rising disparity of student numbers, and lecturers yet the facilities are limited. For example, between 2001/2002, students were 4,534, in 2008/09, they were 14,000 and in 2010/11, they were 24,174, and now are estimated at 30,000.

Aside the organizational wrangles; some staff believe there are external pressure forces at play, especially during Ndiege’s tenure where Education ministry officials involved in the parceling and theft of the vast university played and are pushing the staff to boot him out.

 Justice Mulyagonja, in an interview on the progress of the ongoing investigations at Kyambogo said, “ the cases being handled are over 40, ranging from procurement dirt, nepotism, fraud, illicit land transactions, mismanagement,” among others.

 Asked once about Kyambogo’s problems, Kampala Police Metropolitan boss, Felix Kaweesi, suggested, “a complete overhaul of the entire system and bring in new people”

 Ms Alupo said, “government is aware of all these crises and is mulling a collegiate system for Kyambogo once the IGG concludes her probe and provides recommendations.”

 The colleges system is expected to minimize the current highly uncoordinated, overloaded and duplicated structures.

 The IGG’s report on mismanagement is expected towards the end of this month and will be presented to Parliament to take final decision.