Security authorities in Kanungu District on Tuesday 07/02/2023 closed Great Lakes Regional University following the escalation of clashes between students and a group of directors allied with Bishop Hamlet Kabushenga.
The Kanungu Resident District Commissioner RDC Ambrose Mwesigye Amanyire told our journalists that security has closed the university temporality
He says they took the decision owing to the hostility between the two warring factions.
Amanyire advises the students affected by the closure to remain calm and avoid getting involved in the ownership wrangles.
Martin Kafanta Atukwase, the Public Relations Officer of the faction allied to Honest Wilkins Natukwasa, says that the closure of the university is suffocating the students’ academic future
Kabushenga insists that he is not shaken by any situation on the ground because he is fighting for his property. Kabushenga also says that validation must happen in order to eliminate some students he described as drunkards.
Kabushenga has been the University Founder since its establishment in 2004 until June last year when the university’s funders Child to Family Community Development Organization (CHIFCOD), ordered him to resign over allegations of mismanagement of funds.
In September, Kabushenga tendered in his resignation, but a week later, he made a U-turn and declared that he is still the official founder and chancellor of the University.
Since Monday there has been deployment of anti-riot police at the University.
This is the second time Great Lakes Regional university Kanungu is closed. In November 2021, the National Council for Higher Education (UNCHE) closed the university when the two warring factions organized parallel graduation ceremonies. UNCHE reopened the university a month later as investigations were ongoing.
Great Lakes Regional University (GLRU) is a private university in Uganda. The university is accredited by the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (UNCHE)
The university campus is located outside of the town of Kanungu, in Kanungu District, in the Western Region of Uganda, approximately 136 kilometers (85 mi), by road, northwest of Kabale, the nearest large town and the largest urban centre in Kigezi sub-region. This is about 420 kilometers (261 mi), by road, southwest of Kampala, the capital of Uganda and its largest city
The institution was founded in the early 2000s as a private “tertiary” institution of education, by Hamlet Kabushenga, the former member of parliament of Kinkizi East Constituency. The university received accreditation from the UNCHE, under the name Great Lakes Regional College, in 2009.
The college began graduating students with diplomas and certificates in 2010, and in 2015 it held its 5th graduation ceremony. That same year, the institution received accreditation as a university and it admitted its pioneer class of undergraduates
BY AMBROSE KWERONDA
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