Barely one and a half months since a lecturer of Makerere University came under fire for sexual abuse, the University has suspended another staffer accused of sexually abusing a female student.
Kisuze Edward, the Senior Administrative Assistant in the Academic Registrar’s department at Makerere University has been suspended with immediate effect pending investigations into the allegations of sexual misconduct.
The suspension was effected by the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof William Bazeyo on Tuesday in a letter addressed to the accused administrator.
Kisuze is facing allegations of sexually abusing a female student identified as Njoroge Rachael Njeri. Njoroge reported the case to the University authorities prompting the Management to solicit Kisuze’s response to the allegations which he did in his letter dated April 17.
However, the Acting Vice Chancellor says that the explanations given by the accused administrator were found to be “unsatisfactory”.
“The Academic Registrar has forwarded both letters and your response to this office. Management has found your response to the allegations unsatisfactory and decided to set up an investigation committee to establish exactly what happened,” Prof William Bazeyo said in his letter authored to Kisuze today.
“Accordingly, I hereby suspend you from university service on half pay with immediate effect to allow a smooth investigation into the matter,” the letter adds.
Kisuze has further been restrained from accessing the Senate Building where he works as well as interacting with students of the university pending the conclusion of the probe.
On Tuesday, a gross photo made rounds on social media as well as sections of the news outlets showing a man (suspected to be Kisuze) squatting in front of a half naked girl, seemingly licking her genital area. The photo was taken by the girl, suspected to be Njoroge who is seen leaning against a shelf filled with files.
In a statement to Police quoted by Campus Bee news site, Njoroge Racheal Njeri says the incident occurred on April 13 while she was at the campus to certify her transcript and pick up a recommendation letter.
She says she got to the university in the morning and was referred to Room 507 in the Senate Building. After long hours of waiting, she was later handed copies of her transcripts by Kisuze a few minutes to 5pm.
But it was at that moment that she says Kisuze began to act in a suspecting manner towards her.
“He grabbed my boobs and started licking them as he lamented how much he loved me. I tried to resist his actions but he was more stronger than me,” Njoroge is quoted as having wrote in her statement at Makerere Police station.
“He also grabbed me and threw me on the file cabinets at the corner where my head was hurt by the files and he started kissing my thighs and he told me that he had to lick my vagina,” the statement adds.
It is in the process that she took the photo using her phone.
Just last month, Makerere University suspended Dr Swizen Kyomuhendo, a lecturer at the School of Social Sciences after he was accused of sexually harassing female students.
After Kyomuhendo’s suspension, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe set up an investigation committee to probe into the allegations. The committee comprising of five Professors was also meant to receive submissions from the public on any other sexual harassment cases.
Makerere University has often come under the spotlight for cases of sexual harassment which the Management is criticized for tolerating.
Some of the victims have accused the Management of failure to investigate their complaints, but it is suspected that the majority fear to report for fear of stigma and possible consequences