Makerere staff petition IGP over threats against Dr Spire
Dr Jim Spire Ssentongo. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- The alleged threats follow an ongoing exhibition on X (formerly Twitter) where harrowing revelations on corruption and misuse of public funds at Parliament are being made. Dr Ssentongo, also a lecturer at Makerere University is leading the exhibition.
Makerere University Academic Staff Association (Muasa) has condemned the ongoing alleged threats on Dr Jim Spire Ssentongo’s life over his voice on alleged corruption and misuse of taxpayers' money.
The alleged threats follow an ongoing exhibition on X (formerly Twitter) where harrowing revelations on corruption and misuse of public funds at Parliament are being made. Dr Ssentongo, also a lecturer at Makerere University is leading the exhibition.
In a letter dated March 20, Muasa takes these threats very seriously, cognizant of recent reports of detention of people incommunicado, the murder of Lwomwa Daniel Bbosa, the attempted assassination of General Katumba Wamala and the murder of his daughter.
“We also take seriously Dr Ssentongo's advocacy against corruption in the course of his work as a Senior Lecturer at Makerere University and as a public intellectual. We take strong exception to these threats and reiterate Dr Ssentongo's academic freedom and other freedoms enshrined, inter alia, in Chapter four of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda,” the letter reads in part.
Article 29 (1) (b) of the Constitution states that "Every person shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and belief which shall include academic freedom in institutions of learning."
The letter adds that Dr Ssentongo, like all members of Muasa, and other academic staff in Uganda and beyond must be afforded every opportunity to do his work without threat of harm.
The association has also tasked the police and its sister security agencies to accord Dr Ssentongo protection against these alleged threats.
“Any attack on Dr Ssentongo's academic freedom is an attack on the academic freedom of all the members of Muasa and other academics in the world. Therefore, Muasa demands that the Inspector General of Police, Chairperson of the Joint Forces Command of Uganda, and other relevant local, national, regional and international agencies take immediate and concrete steps to afford Dr Ssentongo the protection he requires from any threats to his life and work,” the letter further reads.
