UNTOUCHABLE! LDC bosses are big headed, they blocked us from supervising them, says NCHE

A section of lawmakers have expressed concern over the failure by the National Council of Higher Education (NHCE) to assert its supervisory powers of overseeing the activities and management of Law Development Centre, saying LDC has created a sort of chiefdom that is beyond scrutiny within Uganda.

The concern was raised by Fox Odoi (West Budama North East) during a meeting held between the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee and National Council of Higher Education, whose officials had been summoned to respond to concerns raised in a petition by students at LDC on the inhumane treatment at the institution.

“I don’t think there are people who would voluntarily surrender themselves to the supervision of others. As a supervisor, you have to assert your authority. You don’t have to wait for a person to come to you to be supervised. The law has asked you to supervise them and if you don’t supervise them, I think it is your fault. Human beings generally are territorial, they create small chiefdoms and don’t want any other authority over them, but once you have the authority, whip them,” said Odoi.

This followed remarks made by Professor Mary Okwakol, Executive Director NCHE who revealed that although LDC was established under the Law Development Centre Act 1970, the later enactment of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 required the Centre to transition and be placed under the purview and regulatory framework of NCHE but LDC has failed to abide by this requirement, and not even an opinion from the Attorney General has swayed the Centre to drop the defiance.

“And because of that assertion, we decided to take this matter to the Attorney General with the request to clarify this position and he did clarify the position and he guided that indeed the LDC should start the process of accrediting because the institution has never been accredited and accredit the programs that are run by LDC. But when we met them, they are still insisting on their mandate under the 1970 Act,” said Okwakol.

Some of the NCHE officials asked Parliament to prevail over the defiance of LDC, pointing out that the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners are working alongside NCHE to regulate their courses but LDC has defied this proposal on grounds that the profession of lawyers has its own culture to oversee its activities.

While reacting to the concern raised by LDC students on the arbitrary fees increment from Shs5 Million to Shs6 Million, Okwakol admitted before Parliament that the Council does not have a policy on fees charged by institutions because these are set by the respective Councils of those institutions and are only sent to NHCE for approval, adding that unlike private institutions that can be closed, it would be hard for NHCE to close up LDC which is a public body.

Robert Ssekitoleko (Bamunanika County) wondered why the NCHE has looked on as institutions increase fees without consultation of students, which has led to rampant strikes in education institutions. (DO YOU HAVE A HOT STORY (CHEATERS, DIVORCE, VIDEOS, CORRUPTION, LAND WRANGLES, EXPOSES …ETAL) YOU WOULD LIKE US TO PUBLISH? CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAIL redpeppertips@gmail.com)