Makerere University, Uganda’s leading institution of learning has come under fire over its discriminative appointments that have seen men occupy most of the top leadership positions.
And as such, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has ordered the Parliamentary Education Committee to investigate why the University has sidelined women in its top administration, noting there is need to look into appointments at Makerere which have been marred with skewed incidences of pushing well qualified women out of positions of power.
“Reading the press last week, we saw that Makerere University has appointed two Deputy Vice Chancellors and we have realized that they are all men. So the entire leadership of the University is skewed, many female candidates applied and the results showed that men have taken up all positions and this is really perpetrating an imbalance,” Kadaga said during Tuesday’s plenary sitting.
It should be noted that last week Makerere University Chancellor, Prof Ezra Suruma announced the appointment of Dr Umar Kakumba as the Deputy Vice Chancellor- Academic Affairs and Prof. William Bazeyo as Deputy VC- Finance and Administration after recommendations by the University Senate of the duo, having attained the highest votes and therefore best placed to take over the leadership.
However, the recent directive by the Speaker is likely to complicate matters at Makerere after Kadaga pointed out that there are very many structural imperfections within Makerere and it is difficult for highly qualified women in the University to compete to take up these leadership positions
“There are 27 leadership positions and all of them from the Vice Chancellor to principals of the colleges, all the 27 are occupied by the men. Can this be a fair society? It isn’t. This is in contradiction to our constitution. This is a matter which I want the Committee of Education to take an interest so we progressively see better participation and equity,” Kadaga said.
Makerere University has been marred with scandals and controversies for many years.
We’ll keep you posted
