UGANDA: Kenyan students shot dead

A security guard at Makerere University in the Ugandan capital Kampala allegedly shot and killed two Kenyan students this month, sparking riots on the campus. The two Kenyans, first year law student Brian Livasia Amuoga and third year commerce student Ignatius Nyongesa, were killed at a hostel while campaigning for student elections.

Amuoga was killed instantly and Nyongesa died while undergoing treatment at Mulago Hospital. A third student, a Ugandan identified as Amon Mugezi, was admitted to hospital in a critical condition after he was also allegedly shot by the same guard on 15 March.

The Ugandan media identified the private security guard as Richard Akasia, and claimed that he shot the students after a fierce argument broke out about the student poll.

Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the incident but Director of Public Affairs and Communication Egara Kabaji said embassy officials in Kampala were liaising with the Ugandan authorities to establish the circumstances leading to the students' deaths.

Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs Moses Wetangula reassured parents of the safety of more than 40,000 Kenyans pursuing education in Uganda. "I want to look at this incident as a reckless criminal act by an individual," Wetangula told reporters.

The killings were condemned by the Ugandan parliament. Minister of Higher Education Mwesigwa Rukutana said the government was committed to probing the matter, and through New Vision newspaper assured Kenyans living in Uganda of government protection.

According to Erastus Muhia, a Kenyan student at Makerere who witnessed the shooting, the students died from the same bullet that hit their Ugandan colleague. He told the media that a commotion broke out between Kenyan students backing their candidate for the student leadership position and "the Ugandan camp which was rooting for one of their own".

Muhia said the two groups had reached a compromise to maintain peaceful campaigns when suddenly a security guard surfaced, aimed his G3 at Amuoga and shot him. The same bullet felled the two other students.

From her village in Western Kenya Amuoga's mother, Violet Luvasia, called for an investigation "to establish the real cause of my son's death".

Ugandan newspapers reported that campus activities were paralysed for two days after the killings as students engaged police in running battles, and even threatened to storm the mortuary to collect the bodies of their departed colleagues.

Makerere Vice-chancellor Baria Mureva met with the irate students in a bid to calm them but they walked out of the meeting.

The death of the Kenyan students was not the only incident to mar elections for the guild presidency at Makerere, which attracted candidates sponsored by all the leading political parties in Uganda as well as independent candidates.

Last week the election was cancelled after students protested against alleged malpractices and the cancelling of the election at two halls of residence, New Vision reported.

"The students responded by rioting in all the other halls of residence. They raided polling stations and took off with ballot papers, which they burned in the middle of roads." An election official was knocked unconscious and rushed to hospital. Two students were arrested.

"The dean of students, John Ekudu, tried to salvage the elections. Instead, the students threatened to lynch him," according to New Vision. He later announced that the election had been cancelled. University managers were trying last week to decide a new date for the poll.