Museveni asks court for more time to resolve UNSA disputes

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has asked court for more time resolve the disputes in Uganda National Student’s Association-UNSA.

This was contained in a letter delivered to the High Court Civil Division presided over by Justice Musa Ssekaana signed by Aggrey David Kibenge, the Under Secretary for Ministry of Education and Sports- MoES.  On January, 8th, 2019, Justice Ssekaana blocked the elections of the UNSA executive that had been scheduled to take place at Mbarara High School.

This stemmed from a petition filed by Ronald Nahwera, a student at Kyambogo University.  In the petition, Nahwera sought orders restraining the outgoing UNSA Speaker, Alfred Ongwen from presiding over the said elections on ground that his term of office had expired on December, 31st, 2018.   

Justice Ssekaana directed that UNSA leadership to meet with the Board of Trustees (MoES) and its Patron, President Museveni to see how they can harmonize the complaints from students regarding the association leadership. He argued that students had been to court severally to challenge a number of issues related to accountability of more than Shillings 150 million, its leadership and constitution.

Ssekaana directed Board of Trustees and Patron to resolve the disputes and report to court with detailed resolutions. On Monday, Kibenge the MoES Undersecretary told court that a report of the mediation had been prepared and finalized.

He explained that during their meeting with President Museveni on August 17th, 2019 where he expected to agree with the parties, it was established that there was an issue that needed more time to resolve before the negotiations are concluded.

“Consequently  the President advised that court be requested to grant two weeks to enable him sort out the issue and hopefully revert to court with a final resolution to the matters”, reads the letter in part.

Adding that, “The purpose of this letter is to update court on this progress and request that the BoT and Patron are granted 14 days to harmonize the report on the outcome of the process.”

According to sources that attended the meeting with the President, about 20 people including the First Lady Janet Museveni, Nahwera’s lawyers, five Members of BoT and the representatives of students attended the meeting that lasted for over six hours .

It is alleged that the meeting failed to yield results because of disagreements on who exactly should preside over the UNSA Annual General Meeting, where the elections are conducted.  The students reportedly rejected a proposal that the speaker presides over the polls.

Another source also told URN that on top of the complaints raised in court in 2018 about the failure by the former UNSA leadership to account for over Shillings 150 million, there was another complaint of the misappropriation of Shillings 42 million. 

The compliant was raised by Innocent Barahuka, Evans Mwesigye and Godfrey Akampurira in their case against Roman Mugalya, Sarah Kansiime, Jonathan Burobuto ,  Alfred Ongwen, Aminah Nattabi, Imran Kasujja, Charlotte Natukunda,  the outgoing leaders of the association.

It is alleged that President Museveni was bitter to hear that Shillings 42 million that was approved by the Education and Sports Ministry that was meant for student activities had been swindled. This prompted Museveni to direct the students to seek an adjournment in court to enable him to do forensic investigations into the issues.

The UNSA lawyer, Isaac Ssemakadde confirmed their meeting with the president.

The case will now return to court on September, 12th, 2019.

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URN