Busoga University Vice-Chancellor, Associate Professor David Lameck Kibikyo has been cited to be at the helm of the current rot that has gutted the University.
A dossier that this website has obtained indicates that whereas Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, also the chairperson of Busoga University Council has tirelessly worked for the betterment of the University, she is blamed for endorsing the appointment of current Vice-Chancellor, Kibikyo who is “systematically strangulating all the vital organs of the university.”
In May 2014, Kadaga wrote a letter to the then Bishop Michael Kyomya, the then Chancellor of Busoga University, directing him to appoint Dr. Kibikyo, a less known academic with controversial history right from Kampala International University (KIU) and Kigali Institute of Management in Rwanda. It is alleged that Dr. Kibikyo mismanaged academic and scholarly activities while serving at KIU to the extent that management therein could not tolerate his methods of work.
“Somehow, Kibikyo seems to have given an impression that he had been hired to be the Biblical Moses, a saviour of what Bishop Kyomya had already described as a sick Busoga University. He also came to the university scene with the impression that in order to cure the sickness, he had to get rid of all the ‘unwanted’ dons by hook or crook,” a highly placed source said.
“He (Kibikyo) appears to have been given encouragement not to respect even Uganda government labour laws. So he started going berserk even against those he claimed went several times to Kigali on behalf of Kadaga to woo him to come to Busoga University.”
Investigations have revealed that, Dr. Kibikyo has single-handedly dismissed, transferred, demoted those he perceives to be ‘bad’ and selectively recruited, and promoted his relatives and friends. Apparently, about 100 staff have been affected in this irrational decisions. However, Kibikyo last year denied all the alleged mismanagement for firing university staff.
“The rumors going around that we unfairly fired part of our staff from the campus should be treated without any concern. We simply laid off these particular because they don’t measure to the required standards or failed to deliver to their expectations thus being discontinued. We were faced with a catastrophe that needed boldness to be handled because our predecessors had employed mostly bachelor’s’ degree holders as lectures yet surely according to the set standards and requisites by the National council for higher education, they could not even measure to the level of tutorial assistants, we definitely had to encourage them first go back and upgrade. Such people instead of understanding the position just waged war,” he said while addressing chairpersons of the districts in Busoga sub region about the state of the university at the New Bugiri campus.
Dr. Kibikyo hammered the ‘last’ nail on the university’s coffin when he committed two grievous financial mistakes in 2014.
First, he single-handedly cancelled a contract which had been approved by the Solicitor General in April 2014 for Alliance Technical Services Limited to construct Science and Computer Laboratories for Busoga University, and diverted the money amounting to Shs151m which had been given to Makuutu SS in Bugweri County in Iganga district for the construction of classrooms.
“The money for Makuuto SS was erroneously sent to Busoga University account in Iganga-Bank of Baroda, from Iganga district local government. And both sums of money were part of President Museveni’s pledges which were included in the 2013-2014 national budget,” the source said.
As if that was not enough, Dr. Kibikyo illegally appointed an Indian national, Dr. Milka Singh, as the Senior Planner of the University. According to a source, Singh who had been dismissed from ISBAT, now Sikkim Manipal University in Kampala is being paid a monthly salary of $3,000 (over Shs10m) as an ‘expatriate staff.’ Whereas the University does not regularly remit its statutory taxes to URA, its staff irregularly receive salaries except for those in good working terms with the VC.
Consequently, staff petitioned the board chair, Kadaga over Kibikyo’s misconduct and on March 18, 2016, she vowed to set up a 7 man Probe Committee to find out the gravity of “pernicious anaemia” which he had injected into Busoga University. However, Kadaga insisted that the VC Kibikyo should be probed while he is in office and since then no fruits from the probe committee have been born.
Before Kibikyo’s appointment, Professor James Bakwesegha, a former UN diplomat, served as the University’s Vice-Chancellor from 2004 to 2013 and Dr. Frank Nabwiso, another well-known academic, politician and down to earth worker took over as an Acting VC from October 2013 to 2014.
Last year, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) closed Iganga-based Busoga University citing unending irregularities at the institution. In 2016, complaints were filed to the council that Busoga University awarded suspicious degrees to over 1,000 South Sudan and Nigeria nationals, which led to investigations into the matter by NCHE. It was alleged then that the students had only spent about four months at the university.
