Tomorrow Morning Acting guild President and Former Speaker of the 82nd Guild will pass on the mantle to his Succesor Kato Paul during the Swearing in Ceremony at the Makerere University Main hall. Imran Kasujja has had a splendid and stellar political journey in makerere University as Guild Representaive Council and Minister of Information Communication Technology in the 81st guild in his First year and then Guild Speaker of the 82nd Guild and currently the acting Guild president and Uganda National Students Association Speaker. We go through the years of his political journey at Makerere university with an exclusive interview with the man himself.
Who is Kasujja Imran
Profile
Kasujja Imran a student offering bachelors of Arts in economics in his third year he is Former GRC School of Economics 1st year ,appointed ICT minister in his first year, was part of the team that came up with the Mak mobile app, Current speaker of the 82nd Guild and Acting Guild president of Makerere University.
Describe your Personality briefly?
Kasujja Imran is a humble ,calm man who is so committed and passionate about anything that I stand for , I am passionate about my academics and a very committed politician and this is one of the main reasons as to why I have managed to go far in everything I set out to do.
I am also a very optimistic person in spite of all the odds and challenges I have faced. One of the things that inspire me is that America had never had black presidents since its independence in 1783 until 2008 when Barrack Obama took the mantle and achieved the seemingly impossible.
Recently I supervised and spearheaded the election of the Electoral Commission 2017 of Makerere and it was the first time to have a debate for the aspirants of the electoral commission 2017. The process faced some resistance but I told the GRC’s that 40 years ago Man had never gone to the moon. The president of America at that time JF Kennedy did not say it is impossible he sponsored the entire project and they are the only country to have managed to land on the moon.
So in summary I’m a dealer in Hope.
What inspired you to join Politics?
My inspiration comes from God .Leadership is a calling, that’s why the Latin’s say the voice of the people is the voice of God. Even in a family there must be a leader. Leadership is a calling from God.
Have your parent’s always supported your political aspirations?
My family has always supported me, they have given me the most important thing which is moral support, as long as I get the goodwill from Mom and Dad, I do not ask for Finances from them. Money is important in politics but it is not paramount ,so they have supported me both morally and financially.
What do you believe you have achieved during your tenure as a leader?
I came here in 2014 in my second sem first year I ran for GRC school of Economics and By the Grace of God, I was appointed ICT Minister so I had an extraordinary privilege to serve as a minister of this university in my first year. As a minister we came up with the Mak mobile app, which is available on the Google play store and it was a very big campaigning tool I used when I ran for speaker of the Guild, I had a good record and Good innovation, Even if I was not a IT student The Guild President at that time Bala Beijuka challenged me to come up with a system that could bridge the communication gap between management and the students. So I told him let’s develop an app and we pitched the Idea to the University Council and they fully funded the project. The project was worked on by a team of our very own Makerere University students from the College of Computing and IT who recently graduated Moses who was doing a bachelor’s degree in Software engineering and Tony who was doing Computer science.
After its development the University took charge
As speaker 82nd Guild
For the first time we had an Electoral commission debate for the candidates of the EC which was held before the election of the electoral commission this was to make sure the voters made an informed decision on who to vote for from the debate.
Then on 29th October 2016, I organized a capacity building workshop where the students guild invited operation wealth creation and a good number of high profile individuals .I presented a concept note about a guild agricultural project. I told them we have a project that generates money for the university we have free land in kabanyoro which we can develop. The principle of kayeesi granted 50 acres of Land. So in the next season which starts in June the Guild will start farming on the kabanyoro land in partnership with the Operation wealth creation which we signed on behalf of the University so it is not an Imran Roy project and the college of agric Irrespective of who is involved, It is officially a University project.
What challenges Have you faced as a leader and what challenges have you seen in Makerere?
As a leader the first challenge is striking a balance between Academics and leadership. For example you’re in class a lecturer is teaching something important then you are alerted on your phone please pick up there is an emergency. So striking a balance between leadership and academics has been my biggest challenge during my tenure.
Challenges in Makerere
Any community must have a challenge, I don’t know of a perfect society not even in the biggest economy in the world. So like any other community Makerere has its challenges however we are still by far one of the best Universities in Africa. We take in the best inland and we produce the best inland because Makerere is usually in most cases always the first choice for any student applying for a tertiary institution in Uganda and other institutions come after.
There is a saying that Makerere students “like striking” what do you have to say about that?
Striking should not always be the first alternative we have, considering that we are the cream of this nation, however by the time the students leadership and community choose to go on strike it means management has turned a deaf ear against us. We as the Guild try as much as possible to engage management we write letters, but when lecturer’s are not coming to class for weeks and we can’t do anything about it. When students come complaining we cannot show them a letter, striking becomes the alternative.
Recently During Graduation 400 people who qualified to graduate where missing from the graduation list and eventually missed out on graduation ,so is it safe for the students to assume that the university management reluctant?
Its true sometimes the management is reluctant to listen to its students, you can be having a number of letters you haven’t gone through from very many students and sometimes you may pick out some or give other issues priority, so by the time the issue is given gravity it is too late and students are picking up their red gowns and resort to striking, so the management panics and has to comes up with a solution. It’s not that Makererean’s want to strike a lot we try as much as possible to engage management so it seems striking is the only language they understands.
Demonstration is a constitutional right in this country under article 21 of the Ugandan constitution which states that people have the right to demonstrate peacefully if they feel uncontent with a situation you are free to express disappointment. Demonstration is actually natural law so I support peaceful demonstrates.
The 82nd Guild Cabinet’s Tenure has come to an end and dissolved about a month ago and you are the acting guild president are there things you have achieved in this short time since you took total control of the students body not only control of the chambers?
Of course the guild president tried as much as possible however every leader has got a number of challenges. Recently on 21st March we had a career expo I had it in mind before the government dissolved so when it dissolved I presented the key note paper to NSSF and they were excited about it .The expo was a success a good no of students attended and they interacted with managers of over 20 companies MTN, NSSF, National Water and Post bank which was really a good experience for them. A lot of times students in class do not necessarily know exactly what they’re going to do with their degrees they don’t know what employers want but with the interactions a good lot of students had with the management of these powerful institutions we were enlightened on what they required. They brought up serious questions like what can we as students to offer to these prestigious companies not just the paper and the degree but a level of competence and commitment in terms of executing tasks.
Any advice for the students aspiring for political positions in MAK.
Well number one they should know that the reason they are here is academics and they should have it at the back of their minds even as they aspire or become GRC’s, guild minister, guild speaker, guild president, the reason why they joined Makerere University is because of academics and even after 5 years the first thing companies will look at is your transcript. During the day I have a lot on my plate in terms of leadership so the night time and the weekend is the only free time I have to read. I am a government student a lot of my OB’s and OG’s I outcompeted in A-level are performing far better than me so campus is for those students who read and are hardworking. No one is smart at campus, campus is for those who read they must have it in mind to strike a balance and sacrifice a few hour of sleep, but if they think they are going to handle leadership matters and get back to class and find things normal then they will not perform as well and at a certain point some students fail to leave campus because of that. They are likely to stay here for years without graduating so they have to read.
However on the other side of the coin Leadership is a wonderful experience and one of the best experiences to have at campus, they are very many opportunities, the exposure, the experience ,the skills you get the additional CV.
I have had an opportunity to sit on the Makerere university council, the supreme body of the university, They make all the decisions that govern the university. In my opinion the university council is better than the executive of Uganda or the cabinet of Uganda. The Makerere university council is filled with marvelous brains, I say this because at the University Council you here professors arguing from informed point of views ,they bench mark the entire world, they have the entire world at their finger tips, they know what happens in Iceland what happens in the states, china they take you as far as Israel ,brazil. In my opinion the members of the councils are geniuses and I am grateful to have heard an opportunity to rub shoulders with them and to see how they argue out issues.
And I would make it a point to say that the student’s representation on the university council really needs very sober people. Because a student can leave the university council without saying a single word yet the university council meetings can last an entire day ,so I would really like to urge students in this forth coming election to vote ,vote leaders who can argue out students issues, because only two students sit on the university council. These professors look at the world as it is for us students we are in assumptions, they are objective if it’s an increment they give you good enough reasons. Makerere university offers cheapest services in the world. Medical students in Kenya pay 6 million shillings.
Which People do you look up to?
I look up to my mom and barrack Obama,
I come from a humble background and my mom also comes from a humble background deep down in Masaka, she would always tell me that she didn’t have an opportunity to make it to university and she would always motivate me to read hard to get here. She always tell me read hard “otukke ku kasozi” ,she would say.She gives me hope. she’s very hardworking and inspirational. During those day’s when I was young and you have had only one meal your hungry at night, she would say we shall make it, we shall break through and indeed we broke through, you can get government, you’re going to make it and indeed I got government.
Barrack Obama ,if u looked at Obama when he was 22 no one could imagine Obama could be the first citizen of the greatest nation in the world, it’s the same way I look at my life when I was 15 I couldn’t imagine that I would be the first student of the university.
What do you do during your Free time?
I’m a Manchester United fan, a passionate Manchester united fan I always feel bad when we get draws football is the sum of my social life . I’m also a gamer I love playing Fifa , I can even forget to eat actually when there is a Man U game that day unless the program is sensitive when there is a game I feel like other plans should be off.
I love also watching TV ,my favorite channel are CNN and Aljazeera, even when I’m home my siblings complain “you man go away “.I also watch movies I love series like House of cards series that are educative and involve a lot of thinking.
My greatest weapon is knowledge why I say this is one time the chairman university council commended me and he said “For the first time a student made a substantive recommendation for all the seven years I’ve been on the University council “. I made a submission ,he stood up and clapped for, I said “we blame lecturers but lecturers are not machines you cannot expect them to mark 1000 scripts effectively so we should increase the number of lecturers in the university and reduce the Lecturer to student’s ratio. Labour force is key, the more people the more hype and the more effectively work is done.
Best Quote
“Knowledge is power ,when you have knowledge you have power, when you have power you have influence, when you have influence you’ll allocate the resources and get things done. Knowledge is power people will always come and consult you. Knowledge is power.”
Interview by coordinated by Nick Sakwa And wagubi Brian Alongside Imran kasujj
