Former Makerere VC Accuses Ex Police Boss of Funding Campus Strikes

Former Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba has publicly accused former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gen. Kale Kayihura of orchestrating and bankrolling student and staff strikes at the university during his tenure — reviving memories of one of the most turbulent chapters in Makerere’s recent history.

In a pointed post on X (formerly Twitter), Baryamureeba alleged that Kayihura “was fighting everyone” and used his office as IGP to pursue a personal campaign against him. Most strikingly, the former VC claimed the police chief “would even organise and fund strikes at Makerere University.”

He ended on a bitter note, suggesting Kayihura’s own later downfall was a form of poetic justice: “His turn finally came and he fell like a sack of potatoes. One good turn deserves another.”

It should be stressed that these are Baryamureeba’s personal allegations. They have not been independently verified, and Gen. Kayihura has not responded to them publicly. CampusBee reports them as claims made by the former VC, not as established fact.

Baryamureeba is not the only prominent figure turning the spotlight on Kayihura. His comments come amid a broader moment in which several high-profile Ugandans have gone public with grievances against the former police boss.

According to a report by ChimpReports, Gen. David Sejusa has similarly pointed to Kayihura as being “behind most of his troubles” — a headline that captures the same theme now echoing across Ugandan social and political commentary. Together, the statements suggest a coordinated reckoning, or at least a shared willingness among former adversaries to finally name Kayihura publicly.

For the Makerere community, the allegations strike a particularly raw nerve. Baryamureeba served as Vice Chancellor during a period defined by repeated strikes, standoffs, and heavy police presence on campus. Students of that era will remember disrupted semesters, tense confrontations, and the frequent sight of security personnel on university grounds.

If the claim that strikes were externally “organised and funded” holds any weight, it would recast much of that unrest not as spontaneous student or staff action, but as something engineered from outside the university — a serious allegation with implications for how that history is understood.

The exchange reflects a growing pattern in Ugandan public life, where former officials and once-powerful figures increasingly use social media to settle old scores and offer their own accounts of events that once unfolded behind closed doors. Whether these claims will be formally substantiated, challenged, or simply left to circulate as commentary remains to be seen.

CampusBee will follow up should Gen. Kayihura, Gen. Sejusa, or other parties respond

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