Johannesburg – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the military to withdraw from Kampala’s Makerere University - as student protests over proposed tuition fee increases which began last week continue - after claiming he wasn’t initially aware of the army’s involvement in brutally quashing the demonstrations.
On Wednesday Museveni shocked members of Parliament (MPs) from his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party when he claimed to have no previous knowledge of the deployment of the military on the campus, adding that he had only found out about the army’s involvement at the beginning of the week, the Uganda Observer reported.
“The military is not trained to quell demonstrations, they are trained to kill. Those students are not enemies, they are young children, grandchildren who need to be guided to do the right thing,” Museveni said during a meeting with NRM MPs at the Office of the President Conference Hall behind the parliamentary buildings.
The president has promised to send an investigating team to examine the root causes of the violence which has been so bloody that the US administration protested and urged Kampala to take immediate action.