In 2014, Makerere abandoned its duty of providing meals to students at halls of residence and delegated it to private service providers as the university administration undertook drastic measures of outsourcing various services. But a few years down the road, the administration feels giving cash to students would serve best as opposed to paying for the meals directly. Ideally, the university would spend less, but tragically, it is abandoning one of its core principles of making life easy for students.
If there were any other bean weevils President Museveni did not speak about or remove from public office, then it is because they are hiding in the crevices of dining halls in Makerere University students halls of residence. But they will also be removed, too.
Effective June 1, the students halls of residence will cease provision of meals, a decision that was stamped after a vote by the university management. The university is moving toward giving cash to students to sort themselves. They are grown up, after all.
The position was reached at a recent council meeting where a report from the Finance and Planning Committee of the University Council presented findings of the survey conducted among students.
Food is given to both government resident and non-resident students. The university says government student total to about 6,000 with about 2000 residing at the campus.
There are nine halls of residence in Makerere University; Complex (CCE), Mary Stuart and Africa for female students, and Lumumba, Nkrumah, Livingstone, Nsibirwa, Mitchell and University Hall for male students.
The campus also has a post-graduate hall, Dag Hammarskjold, as well as two other ‘halls’ outside for medical students (Galloway at Mulago Hospital) and agriculture students (Kabanyolo).
Cyriaco Kabagambe, the dean of students, was quoted by Daily Monitor newspaper at the weekend as saying that a survey was done and that more than half of the students body had opted to have their money for meals given to them in cash other than be served meals in halls.
Meals have been part and parcel of the students halls since their construction or formation from the 1920s, then 1940s through to 50s, 60s, 70s, and 90s. The dean of students said the students cited poor quality meals as the only reason for their decision.
Of course, most such places where meals are provided to mass population endure similar stories and cope with it. And Makerere University isn’t any different.
However, what is different at the country’s premium university of knowledge is that students enjoy a lot of freedom and the administration has to keep on its toes to appease a populace that reacts so badly at the height of stress, leading to regular strikes.
And food has always been a ‘weevilish’ affair at the university, a cause for strikes quite many times already, most recently in 2012 when residents of Lumumba Hall adorned the red gowns in protest over what they said was provision of ‘rotten food.’ Two years ago, students from Lumumba, CCE and Mary Stuart halls protested over poor quality meals.
So, that food has always been a cause for agitated students at halls of residence is not news to Makerere University, but scrapping meals would ideally serve the interest of a few students–most of them misled–and the university administration.
Here is why.
For some students from well-off families, meals in the halls are tasteless and induce all sorts of digestive ailments. Some eat only on days when chicken or fish fillets are being served. Others do not eat hall meals altogether throughout their stay, opting to use the services of outside catering.
Such ‘rich’ students mostly trade off their meal cards for cash. And that kind of lifestyle they choose would soon rub on many others, who succumb to peer pressure and shun the dining hall, opting to sell off their meal cards as well.
The trouble is when the cash is not able to sustain one for the entire duration of a semester, for instance. This forces many students to look for alternative means to avoid starving, be it by asking for more pocket money from parents or selling off a few possessions to raise funds.
Ideally, it is against such eventualities that meals at dining halls are meant to help students from digging into. More like shunning a dining hall without proper funding and ending up digging a hole and filling oneself in. This explains why hall meal cards sell like hot cakes at university, especially among nonresident students and former students who continue to hang around the university.
To many, the halls of residence offer very cheaper alternative to balanced diet since they serve breakfast, lunch and supper, with different items on menu, including milk, bread, fish, beef, potatoes, posho, cassava, and chicken.
But to the university administration, scrapping of meals means less burden. The university, until recently, has been footing cost of UGX2,000 per meal per government sponsored student per day. But that is only theoretically. The mathematical computation would mean no less than UGX10,000 per student per day since government-sponsored students are mainly residents entitled to three meals a day.
Non-resident government sponsored students are paid living out allowance, which includes evening meals.
Outsourcing
However, a longstanding plan to outsource meals at halls of residence that had dragged for nearly ten years was finally put to work when the university started outsourcing meals provision to students.
The decision by the university administration at to outsource some of its services from the private sector in July 2014 followed a University Council resolution of 2012. The university said it was seeking to end the long standing practice of providing meals to students in their halls of residence.
The move was initially opposed by a section of students, who argued that if the university withdrew from the outsourced services, quality of service like meals would decline.
The compromise meant all students would still have to present their meal cards, but the university would pay the UGX4,000 per day for government sponsored students to the service providers on a monthly basis. Private students pay the UGX4,000 in cash, on presenting their meal cards.
Following the Council Policy to outsource catering services, the university in August 2014 contracted four firms to provide catering services at six serving centres.
Venus Meas Enterprises was procured to provide food to students in University Hall and Mitchell Hall, while Rema Restaurant and Take Away has been providing meals to Nkrumah and Nsibirwa halls. Students from Complex, Lumumba and Mary Stuart halls of residence have been getting meals prepared by Finaland Bars and Restaurant at Mary Stuart Hall, while Bbosa Institutional Catering Services has been serving students in Africa Hall, Livingstone Hall and Galloway House for medical students in Mulago and agriculture students at Kabanyolo Hostel in Gayaza.
The contracts for the meal providers end in June and that the university will not renew their contracts under the current arrangement. The university has been paying money directly to the companies to provide food to government sponsored students and hall residents since 2014.
But UGX2000 per day for a meal wouldn’t even buy a mug of porridge in a 50-50 restaurant in downtown. Makerere was paying the service providers less than they deserve and it didn’t take long for the latter to complain.
The service providers are required to serve different types of food to students. Beef, chicken, fish, rice, beans, peas, matooke, sweet potatoes, posho, milk, bread and eggs…
That list is huge and impossible to maintain at the cost of UGX2,000 per student per meal. Perhaps five times that would work.
The service providers demanded more money, and the university, having walked out of a traditional self-sustaining system that has tested the depth of time in decades, now finds itself in a quagmire; either it pays more for the meals or scrap it altogether.
The latter option is what any university administrator would opt for. It is a capitalist system after all. And finding the vote needed is not a hard call as long as those well-off students can be got to sign here and there. It is business and Makerere is willing to test the depth of the lake with both feet.
So what will the students do? Makerere University administration has already showed it’s card. And they will be hoping the students are all up for the cash rather than meals.
Students react
And if the university was expecting opposition to the scheme, it will not take long to come. Louis Namwanje, a fourth-year Law student and resident Nsibirwa Hall, in a memorandum he presented to the Visitation Committee on behalf of the students guild in 2016, opposed the issue and the members of committee looked convinced.
“Even during the exit meeting they had with the two student representative and the University admin they appeared to agree with me, he goes on to say. The methodology that was used to carry out this research that was tabled before the University Council, which led to the second phase of pulling out of non-core business, which includes scrapping meals, was biased. The questions in the survey were biased,” he said.
“All this is as a result of voting weak student leaders who can’t defend the students seriously couldn’t someone tell that this survey was cooked through hood winking students? I have been following this issue and the students’ guild was silent all this time. Well, thank God I am leaving Makerere at least all these changes will take place when people like us who have been opposing such policies are gone.”
There is a lot of concern from the students as most policies taken up by the University Council are not fulfilled. The recent policy of allowing students have the option of receiving money instead of meals has hit a snag as to this day most students have only received half the money.
Sheba Musiimenta, from Complex Hall, doubts the university really engaged the student body and says the surveys being fronted are “false and don’t really depict the position of the students guild.”
“On average, a meal costs UGX3,000, meaning one needs at least UGX6,000 per day to have a decent meal. But the university is talking of giving students UGX4,000! Shouldn’t students be stressed with one meal a day or bad meals when lecturers are known to stress so much already?” Musiimenta said.
As if that is not bad enough, authorities have long razed down cheap popular food places such that dotted the university surroundings popularly known as ‘Kiku-kikumi’. It is said the service providers wanted monopoly of providing meals to make a kill, thus to pressure to have the cheap restaurants razed down. With the would-be alternatives no more, which way Makerere?
The reality is that, the university is relinquishing the burden of having to bargain and have the service providers available and provide food for students at UGX4,000 or slightly more than that per day, but are now resorting to giving the students the stipends. This is like giving the service providers more monopoly as such.