The National Unity Platform (NUP) party has supported some of the starving Makerere University government students with 10 kg of posho and 5 kg of rice and hosted them for a lunch buffet.
Before handing over the food items to the students at the party headquarters at Makerere-Kavule on November 1, 2024, the party President Robert Kyagulanyi said that they did this as a gesture to share with those who are less privileged.
“We invited you here as a symbolic gesture to share a meal with you but most importantly to provoke those who have absconded their responsibility and remind them of their duty to serve,” he said.
Kyagulanyi also warned the Makerere top administration and reminded them that they needed to respond to the needs of the university students and restore the great glory of Makerere.
“Twenty-one years ago when I was a student at Makerere University, everyone admired to study at Makerere, but now Makerere students are sleeping hungry, and I don’t think someone out there who is going to sit for S.6 exams admires to now come to study at Makerere where students are sleeping hungry,” Kyagulanyi added.
Doreen Ainembabazi, the Minister in Charge of Production, Employment, Estates, and Environment at Makerere University, said that this was a good gesture and asked other stakeholders to emulate NUP and support government students.
“We as students are hungry, and we are calling upon different organizations to hear out our cry and support the university students and let the government do its part because we are tired of empty promises,” she said.
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Churchill Davis Ssentamu, also a student at Makerere University, said that many students were intimidated from coming to NUP by the Wandegeya DPC but asked as many students as possible to join the cause, whether they are private students or government students.
Makerere government students are entitled to meals and accommodation allowances, which many say have been delayed, and the few who have got haven’t even gotten 10% of what they are supposed to get.
Some of the students say they have resorted to selling off their laptops and other valuables to be able to get some little money to buy food, and there are also claims that some female students have resorted to prostitution to be able to earn some little money to survive on campus.
