By Umaru Kashaka
Makerere University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe has said parents or sponsors are now required to send students to accredited private hostels.
“This year, we worked on a process to accredit private hostels and instructed the dean of students to initiate this hostel accreditation process. Have those accredited published on our website,” he said in a tweet on Wednesday, November 02.
Nawangwe was reacting to a social media report of “a serial rapist and sexual abuser” in one of the university hostels.
“We shall use all resources available to reign in on this individual (name withheld) and others like him. Private hostels may not be our business, but they exist because we do, and parents/sponsors will send students to accredited private hostels from now on,” he said.
The person who raised the issue on Twitter implored Nawangwe to see to it that the “serial rapist and sexual abuser” was brought to book.
“Sir, please do and follow up because he is a repetitive offender and has been emboldened by the hostel’s efforts to protect him. Having him anywhere in the caretaking position of students’ residence is a proven risk. The harm he has caused is grave. Nothing is being done,” she wrote on her @_lisacharity Twitter account.
She introduces herself in her Twitter bio as a film student.
Media reports say due to the increased number of undergraduate students, universities do not have enough space to house all of them and the next option is a hostel. But, they note, some of these hostels are simply not safe.
