President Museveni on Tuesday evening hastily ordered for the closure of Makerere University after learning of a plot by the Opposition leader Kizza Besigye and the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago to ally with the striking students and lecturers.
After concluding the day’s tour of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) gardens, Museveni was briefed by his intelligence handlers that they had got wind of credible intelligence that Dr Besigye and the Lord Mayor had infiltrated Makerere University students and lecturers.
The briefing that was given to the President was that the Makerere University Councillor-Doreen Nyanjura, an unwavering Besigye fanatic was at the forefront for mobilising for the opposition inside Makerere University.
When Nyanjura was arrested over the weekend from Besigye’s home, security operatives had a plan to badly rough her up and make her demoralised enough not to partake in any mobilisation of students but her resilience meant their plan backfired.
Intelligence also had reports that aggrieved vendors who were this week violently kicked off the streets of downtown Kampala were eager to join any sort of protests in Kampala to vent their anger and possibly make a quick buck by looting.
With this background, it was clear to intelligence that the volatile security situation at Uganda’s biggest public university was taking a dangerous turn that could engulf the entire city.
After briefly consulting with the First Lady Janet Museveni who doubles as Education Minister, the President took the decision to indefinitely put the University under lock-down.
