The centenary celebrations lasted a full year, having been launched by Museveni at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on Independence Day, October 9, 2021. The theme for the centenary was ‘Leverage 100 Years of Excellence in Building a Transformed Society’ with an alternate one titled ‘A century of service to humanity’.
The heavily packed series of activities included public lectures on luminaries in Makerere’s journey, exhibitions, a special sitting at parliament and a number of alumni homecoming dinners, among others.
Luminary personalities blessed with a centenarian public lecture were Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, Frank Kalimuzo, Katikkiro Martin Nsibirwa, Prof Timothy Wangusa, Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o, President Nelson Mandela and Prof William Senteza Kajubi.
14 BAREFOOTED PIONEER STUDENTS
Having opened its gates as a technical school to 14 barefooted students studying in grass-thatched huts in 1922, Makerere now boasts almost 40,000 students in 10 colleges with modern permanent structures. A multipurpose digital system, Mak Advance System that was launched on August 2, 2022, has established that Makerere has at least 400,000 alumni spread across the globe.
Vice chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe told celebrants that Makerere currently offers 457 academic programmes and that has the largest library in the country which also acts as a national repository (alongside the National Library of Uganda) and as a repository for the United Nations Organisation (UN).
He said Makerere trained a large corps of post-colonial civil service and East and Central African politicians. Among these prominent alumni, he mentioned five presidents; Julius Nyerere, Milton Obote, Mwai Kibaki, Benjamin Mkapa and Joseph Kabila.
13 FOUNDER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
Nawangwe said all the 13 old districts that constituted Uganda contributed to the setting up of Makerere as a premier institution of higher learning. Dan Kidega, the chairperson of Mak@100 committee and vice chairperson of the university council, said the committee visited Makerere alumni in the capitals of Nairobi, Kigali and Dar es Salaam, and also created a Twitter space to engage with alumni across the globe.
He added that the committee and university management will in the future visit each of the districts to thank them for that sacrifice, and build stronger partnerships with them. The modest ceremony on October 6 did not involve students, and no speech was given to a representative or leader of Makerere’s current students.
RENOVATION OF HALLS
In the various speeches that were made, it transpired that the government, through ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, has committed to renovate all halls of residence at the campus; already works on Lumumba hall are ongoing.
Deputy speaker of parliament Thomas Tayebwa told celebrants that he and other leaders are working on a concept paper to change the mode of allocating the mainstream government scholarships at Makerere; it will be handed to the president and the ministry of Education and Sports. He argued that the majority beneficiaries have always been children from well-off families who have been at expensive schools. They want this scholarship to benefit children of poor families.
In an immediate reaction to that disclosure, Museveni said there is an ongoing education review commission headed by Maj Amanya Mushenga, and urged the public to forward their proposals to it. The president concluded his speech on an optimistic note that the university will have to learn from its challenges and do greater wonders in future.
“Since Makerere has survived 100 years, what has not been done will be done,” he said.
Kidega said even with these mega celebrations, there is still a number of centenary activities till end of December. According to the website of MakAt100, the forthcoming activities include public lectures on President Julius Nyerere and Sara Ntiro, a centenary run, a research and innovation exhibition, and recognition and excellence awards, among others.
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