Ugandan court fixes date for hearing on Kampala University graduation row

A Ugandan court has announced that the first court session between Kampala University and its South Sudanese students at the Juba College is expected to begin on 11 July.

A Ugandan court has announced that the first court session between Kampala University and its South Sudanese students at the Juba College is expected to begin on 11 July. 

This week, the university blocked about 1,000 students at its Juba branch from graduating.

The students staged a peaceful protest after they were denied graduation, saying they have been fooled into paying tuition fees for years at the controversial Kampala University of South Sudan.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday, Stephen Nelson, one of the lawyers defending the protesting students, said the court in Kampala would hold the first hearing on the second week of July.

“I am one of the lawyers representing about 1,000 students of the Kampala University college of Juba. They instructed us to handle their case three days ago and we managed to file three suits against the responding university where we are seeking the court of law in Uganda to look into the management of the university of not graduating the students of the Kampala University, college of Juba,” Nelson said.

“To today (Thursday) we managed to set up the main case of hearing and it will be coming up on the 11th July 2022,” Nelson added.

The lawyer stated that the university has no grounds to block or impose some measures on the students, promising that his clients have come up with a very nice case.   

“I cannot discuss so much about the merit of the main case because it is before the court of law here in Kampala, however, I can tell you that our clients have a very good case,” he concluded.