{UAH} MUK: MUASA SHOULD MANAGE STUDENT MESS AND EMPLOY STUDENTS

MUK is at it again. Prof. Ssentamu says he is implementing Council directives to transfer the students' mess to 'service providers'.  The campus has a limit to the category and number of 'externalities' it can handle. The hitherto 'sacred' ground is now desecrated, demystified by all manner of 'suppliers'. Boda bodas now know every nook and corner of the campus. This must be revisited. For starter, MUASA should take over the catering services, recruit and employ students willing and able to work in the system. The arrangement has several winning points for the Hill, including income for the students and MUASA, the investors. We are no longer in the era of philosopher-kings, shielded from commerce and trade, thus training students to theories at abnormal cost to poor parents. Students working in the MUASA Catering Services Ltd will earn skills and cash. Someone attending evening programmes can work in the mess during the day, and vice versa. The campus will be shielded from the 'invasion' that has turned it into any other slum of Kampala. 

We need a transformative university. MUK with all the assets: prime land in Kla, farmland in Kabanyolo et al, must take the lead. If the decision came from Council, this Council is out of touch with reality. Yet they lament unemployment, theoretical education, moral decadence etc.

In the same line, Uganda Police Force needs to establish a fully-fledged construction and maintenance unit to build decent housed for the men and women serving in the force. A visit to Mbarara Police barracks for example, will tell you the potential the location has to put up simple but decent flats, just a replica of Nsambya. And the army? Someone is telling ' don't talk about that...it is beyond your comments....

SB

Kla