By Ian Ortega
It’s 1:30pm when the first Makerere University students get into Kyambogo University. As usual, they embark on their usual songs with all kinds of sexual innuendos and obscenities. Most Kyambogo Students are still having their lunch. Some are not even aware that there’s a match between Kyambogo and Makerere. Others are rushing for tests.
Students begin gathering at the Kyambogo Pitch. Since the pitch is fenced off. Only a few students manage to jump over the fence and get in. The gates had not been opened yet to allow in students.
Minutes later, gates are opened and students aka supporters take their positions according to sides. MUK students are already armed with their logs, stones and a few metal bars. More MUK students continue to arrive in taxis and some on bodabodas. I later learn the University denied them the bus for fear of violence that may ensue.
It’s now past 2pm, the match is yet to start. MUK students have taken over the pitch and police is begging them to get off the pitch, so the match can begin. They keep running around, breaking into circles of Kyambogo supporters and provoking them to a fight.
There are only 5 policemen manning this match. It’s the first sign that in case things go wrong, no one is secure. Only 5 policemen guarding over 1000 students is unacceptable on all levels. Only one of these policemen is armed, and only one of these has a teargas canister. Another indicator that something is about to go wrong.
The two teams get on the pitch. Police asks the two factions of supporters to interchange positions. Kyambogo supporters willingly take on the new position, leaving the one with the microphone and loud speakers under the control of Makerere students. This already shows Kyambogo students commitment to keeping peace throughout the match.
After-all, Kyambogo University has already qualified. It has 6 points in its basket. Makerere needs this match. Kyambogo does not need a win at all, not even a draw, they are here to have fun.
It’s now 4pm, the match is yet to begin. The Makerere University team begins to get off the field for no specific reason. One Makerere student locks the exit gate from the pitch.
The first stones are hurled by Makerere University Students. Direct attacks are now happening. Supporters from both sides struggle to jump out of this fence. Inside the pitch, supporters from both sides are now taking on each other. It’s impossible to now tell who’s from which side except for a few courageous ones that are still donning the undergraduate gowns of their Universities.
In confusion, an official is hit by a stone. The stone came from the direction of the Makerere camp. In a bid to cover up the act on their part, one of the Makerere students rushes to help. Together with his friends, they make it a point to blame this on Kyambogo students. But it was clear where the stone came from. Another girl is hit in the same exchange. This time round, none of the observers can tell which University she’s from. Not even the MUK side thinks she’s one of their own. It’s now a blame game.
The Police fires a few rubber bullets. Calm returns for sometime. The officer in charge calls up Afande Sam Omara and group that were at MUBS overseeing the elections there.
Omara arrives, ready to fire some canisters. It should be noted that none of the Makerere University team members was attacked in anyway. The Kyambogo Students make it a point to protect them until Police can come to escort them out of the University.
When Omara arrives with his patrol truck, they call upon the few remaining MUK supporters and the MUK team and off they lead them out of the University. Kyambogo Students follow by heckling the MUK students for failing to succeed in the violence and hooliganism they had imported.
The few MUK students not to accept defeat throw stones at the Kyambogo students. The battle resumes for the second time. Omara orders his officers to resort to tear gas. Students in nearby lecture rooms are affected and so are patients in the medical centre.
Calm finally returns when the Makerere students are out of the University. History has been repeated. It happened in 2012, Kyambogo was banned for a year. It happened once again in 2014, now it happens in 2015.
Who is to blame? Both sides are responsible, yet Makerere seems to be responsible to a higher degree.
Did the Police deploy in sufficient numbers? It didn’t happen. The organizers failed when it came to security. That was the match that never was, a match that ended in blood-shed. A match that saw students get injured. It was a match that left another hatchet unburied and more wounds opened.