The Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) has taken interest in a case in which, Makerere University lecturer, Bernard Wandera is accused of slapping a female student.
Wandera was recorded in a video that went viral on social media over the weekend slapping the student during his lecture inside the Frank Kalimuzo teaching facility.
Much as the Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, has suspended Wandera and stopped him from accessing his office and any other University facility, Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, says that the CID headquarters has taken an interest in the matter because the administrative sanctions are not prohibitive in nature.
Enanga explained that CID headquarters has since instructed the Kampala Metropolitan CID team to ensure the case is properly investigated for prosecution purposes as opposed to the sanctions by the university like half pay or dismissal.
According to police, in most cases, Universities and other institutions of learning only suspend or dismiss the perpetrators of violence against students and they end up securing jobs in other educational institutions where they continue to unleash terror on learners.
“We are happy that the University took administrative action to suspend the lecturer but the matter has a criminal dimension. Many human rights defenders, parents, guardians, and students have criticized several universities for mishandling such acts of physical harassment. Usually, settlements are arranged for these perpetrators such as voluntary resignation but such are not prohibitive,” Enanga said.
It alleged that Wandera told two female students to march out of his lecture for allegedly talking and disrupting the attention of other students.
The students did not heed the directive swiftly prompting him to walk to where they were seated and one of the learners. In his suspension letter, Prof Nawangwe noted that Wandera’s action during a social policy class contravened the terms and conditions of his employment with the University and provisions in the Universities ad other tertiary institutions Act 2001.
“I have also received additional written complaints from a student of the college of humanities and social sciences as well as oral complaints from the university community on this matter,” he said.
Wandera, according to Nawangwe, was suspended in accordance with section 55(c) of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 (as amended) as well as the provisions of the Uganda Public Service Standing orders 2021, and the Makerere University Human Resource Manual (2009).