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Woman Killed, 70 Makerere Students Held Over Riot

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
November 17, 2004
Posted to the web November 16, 2004

By Evelyn Lirri & Rosebell Kagumire
Makerere

Police are holding at least 70 suspected ringleaders of yesterday's student strike at Makerere University. The suspects are in custody at Wandegeya Police Station.

A woman was killed and several students injured in the daylong street fighting between the police and the students, which paralysed several parts of the city.

The demonstration, which started peacefully on Monday evening, arose from the death of a student Mr Edgar Mukundane, who was knocked down by a speeding vehicle along Bombo Road on Friday.

He later died in hospital on Monday afternoon. Mukundane, a third year Social Sciences' student, was the Off Campus Guild Minister for Lumumba Hall.

The demonstration took an ugly twist yesterday after news filtered in at campus that three other students, Ms Rose Kawarachi, Ms Norah Namuli and Ms Scovia Kangayi had also been knocked by a vehicle on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road and were in critical condition at Mulago Hospital.

The Regional Police Commander for Kampala Extra, Mr Oyo Benson Nyeko, confirmed the death and the arrests, but declined to give details. "Some students have been arrested, but our role is to keep law and order," Nyeko said. The students want Kampala City Council (KCC) and the Ministry of Transport to put humps and zebra crossings along Bombo and Sir Apollo Kaggwa roads.

Makerere's Public Relations Officer Ms Hellen Kawesa said the university had requested KCC to respond to the students' demands immediately.

At 10 am the anti-riot police were deployed at the university and along Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road to quell the demonstration. Police fired tear gas canisters and bullets in the air to scare off the charging students. But the students pelted the police with stones.

A woman was shot dead in the random firing while several policemen and students were injured. Activity at the university was paralysed as students, mostly from Lumumba Hall, engaged the police in running battles.

Lectures were suspended and lecture rooms and offices remained closed for the whole day yesterday. The students took advantage of the chaos and destroyed telephone booths and looted air time cards in front of the university main library.

Other students set fire and mounted roadblocks at strategic routes like Nankulabye junction, Wandegeya and Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road, which brought traffic to a stand still. Rev. Fr. Lawrence Kanyike, the chaplain of St. Augustine Chapel, led the prayers which lasted about 30 minutes. Inside the chapel, the students paraded an empty coffin with the deceased's portrait at the pulpit. Ekudu said the body had been taken to the deceased's home in Kagongo, Ibanda in Mbarara district for burial at midday today.

Transport will be available at the Main Building at 7 am today.

 
 

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