By Joachim Twino
Sometime in 2013, Prof Baryamureeba became the chairman of the Mubs governing council replacing Collin Sentongo who had served for so long. His friend Jessica Alupo was minister of education and it was her who prompted Principal Wasswa Balunywa to lobby his management colleagues to accommodate Baryamureeba who had acrimoniously just lost his job as Makerere VC. Balunywa & co got Baryamureeba nominated as a representative of the public on the council and he was marketed as someone with experience and development-mined. He had also not showed any bad faith towards Mubs for the few years he served as VC chairing the Makerere Senate. Once in Council, the Balunywa-led management lobbied members to make Barya Chairman of the council whose other members include the likes of Minister Bright Rwamirama who represents the alumni/the Mubs convocation. Others are FDC strongman Mugisha Okwera who represents KCCA in the council and Prof Lugoba who chairs the appointments board which is one of the many council sub committees. There are also none voting council members who have since been co-opted in the Mubs council because of the vital influential positions they hold in society. They include Beatrice Anywar, Anite and Chimudah, a retired auditor. In the first four years of his headship of the Mubs council, Baryamureeba (now in his 6th year and 2nd term) had a very cordial relationship with management and an impressed Balunywa even created for him a monthly retainer of Shs4m which he has been getting per month. This is what in the corporate world they call “taking chair of the chairman” and the decision was taken to smoothen Mubs-related operations for Baryamureeba. Other council members too get a sitting allowance and a retainer which is negligible compared to what the chairman earns. The chairman also sometimes gets fuel for his vehicle and is assigned an officer who receives or delivers his correspondences since he no longer has office at UTAMU and Twed Plaza where he initially had a personal office. Using personal money, some Mubs officials even contributed finances towards Baryamureeba’s 2016 presidential campaigns even though their candidate was YK Museveni. They did this opportunistically because they anticipated that, on performing well by getting some impressive votes, Baryamureeba would be appointed either education minister or even PM or deputy. In that case, they hoped, he would pay back by treating them favorably.
THINGS FALL APART;
Whereas the relationship was cordial in the initial phase, things gradually fell apart and the two professors ceased seeing eye to eye. This Morning Briefing story captures what exactly went wrong. First to cause disagreements was the procedure through which one becomes dean heading a faculty at Mubs. The practice had always been deans emerging through consensus but when Baryamureeba returned for 2nd term, he discouraged this saying it wasn’t the 21st century way of doing things. He insisted on elected deans the way it’s done at Makerere and Balunywa, who initially vehemently protested, grumblingly accepted this new arrangement. Balunywa’s concern was that electing deans would ferment cliques and intrigue at Mubs. Meanwhile at some point, the council members’ retainer went unpaid for two months and, having come under pressure from his deprived members, Baryamureeba wrote letters demanding for arrears. Balunywa-led management didn’t like this; they felt the best way would have been for the council chairman to ring the Principal and resolve the issue of delayed retainer. By writing they felt the chair had taken things too far and too seriously. Management kept indifferent and didn’t reply the letters, something that was interpreted by the chairman as insubordination. Then came the issue of Dr. Arthur Ahimbisibwe whose education training to get the PhD was supported by the Balunywa-led management. He rose to become the chairman for MUBASA which unites all academic staff at Mubs. As MUBASA boss, Mr. Ahimbisibwe got a slot in the Mubs council where he worked very well with Baryamureeba. This created bad blood with management and accusations began that Baryamureeba was using him through MUBASA to antagonize Balunywa-led management. Along the way, Ahimbisibwe who Balunywa administration had elevated to the position of head of department was accused by female students and staff at his department of indiscriminate improper sex conduct. This was done in writing by staff who kept petitioning the Principal’s office calling for Balunywa’s protection arguing they didn’t expect fairness in Council. In the end, the Balunywa-led administration had Ahimbisibwe expelled and this partly is what Baryamureeba was referring to in his Saturday Monitor interview when he said Balunywa “is a bully who only cooperates with people who bow to his demands.” In December 2017, Ahimbisibwe reported to Baryamureeba in writing accusing Balunywa of witch hunt and Baryamureeba, being council chairman, attempted to crack the whip on Balunywa but didn’t succeed; in the end the MUBASA boss had to go. Barya took this to be an insult to his clout as the council chairman. The controversial departure of Dr. Ahimbisibwe clearly escalated what was already bad blood between the two professors. The wedge only kept widening every other day and apparently none would cede space for the other. Even after leaving office, Ahimbisibwe kept writing dossiers accusing Balunywa of fraud and demanding that the Principal job must be advertised for other equally qualified Mubs professors to apply. He would address his letters to the IGG while copying in Baryamureeba, PPDA and the education ministry. These repeated dossiers caused communication between Barya and Balunywa to totally break down after Balunywa supporters accused council chairman of being the invisible hand behind Ahimbisibwe’s letters. When in March Barya wrote to the education minister Janet Museveni recommending Balunywa for re-appointment, the principal’s supporters didn’t believe this was genuine. As Balunywa states in his angry protest letter to Barya (we posted it as part of our weekend story titled; Mak, Mubs still need Balunywa-Nawangwe), it was claimed Barya never sent the letter to the ministry and the president but all this was just deception meant to dupe Balunywa and other stakeholders. Balunywa in his letter claimed that Baryamureeba’s recommendation was received by the council members he copied it to but was never sent to the President and education minister.
SPLITTING MOES BOSSES;
It emerged with time that at the Education Ministry, a battle raged with different officials taking different positions. They each sought to market their position to Janet who is the ultimate decision-maker to determine Balunywa’s fate being the line minister. A group led by Higher Education Minister JC Muyingo vehemently resented Balunywa being reappointed and impressed as much to the first lady. They had documents showing the questionable procurement transactions of the Balunywa era. It was suspected it were the Barya camp members that were supplying these documentations to bias the first lady. On the other hand was another group led by Minister Rose Seninde who kept telling the first lady that Balunywa wasn’t the monster some of the ministry officials were painting. Then came the issue of Prof Joseph Ntayi who the Principal controversially re-appointed as Dean Faculty of Procurement & Economics. This deflated pro-Barya Prof Moyo Musa who lost elections to Ntayi. Subsequently, a petition emerged accusing Prof Ntayi of academic impropriety. The allegations against him were very wild including being accused of including a female lecturer called Irene Namugenyi on the list of authors of a journal article that was published resulting into academic dividends. Council was petitioned to investigate Ntayi on grounds that he favored Namugenyi because she was his girlfriend. This created an impression that whereas Dr. Ahimbisibwe’s experience was being used to paint the Barya camp as sexually discredited, the Balunywa camp members were as unworthy. In the end, Namugenyi was expelled on Barya’s insistence. She has since dragged the University to court protesting wrongful dismissal and members of Barya’s camp accuse Balunywa of being openly sympathetic to Namugenyi’s court case. The manner in which Barya insisted on expediting the Namugenyi purging is why Balunywa in his 25th May letter accused Barya of micromanaging the Business School in a manner that is clearly ultra-vires his mandate and powers. When Balunywa showed his displeasure with Barya personally getting involved into Namugenyi expulsion, the ex-Makerere VC sent him a strongly worded email in which Balunywa says he was insulted and itched to respond but other council members restrained him. On another occasion in the week towards Easter, Barya wished to have a council meeting whose date Balunywa objected to on grounds he wouldn’t be around. Barya furiously responded by directing the Mubs Secretary Francis Yosa to ignore Balunywa’s reservations and call the meeting. This exactly is what happened and there were fears a war would erupt between Balunywa and Yosa but this somehow didn’t happen. Last but not least, religious connotations took center stage when Barya all of a sudden was seen as being a staunch catholic ever deepening his contacts at Rubaga Cathedral. When JC Muyingo became like-minded and bought into many of the things Barya would communicate to the Ministry concerning Mubs, Balunywa’s supporters started claiming that religious similarity is the thing that was causing Barya and Muyingo to closely work together to professionally annihilate Prof Juma Wasswa Balunywa because he a Muslim. This clearly came out in Balunywa’s friend Asuman Kiyingi’s last weekend facebook rants that many felt bordered on the extreme. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
