John Kamanyire, a first year student of economics at Makerere has petitioned the guild president, Roy Seemboga, over alleged increment of the student identity(ID) card fee by 200 per cent.

In his petition, Kamanyire argues that it's unheard of for a university ID to move from Shs 15,000 to 45,000 within a year.

Ssemboga promised to look into their matter as soon as possible, but declined to give more information about the issue.

Speaking to this reporter on Monday, October 10, 2016 at Makerere University, Kamanyire said the petition seeks fairness from the institution's management.

"in this petition, I'm requesting the university administration to reconsider their decision because our parents can't raise all that money for a mere ID," he said.

Efforts to get a comment from the University Vice Chancellor, Prof John Ddumba-Ssentamu, were futile as calls to his known number went unanswered.

However, in exclusive interview with Edgar kawuki the technician responsible for printing these IDs, he has not yet received any official communication indicating that the first year students are to pay Shs 45,000 for for an Identity card but admitted that "students are already paying the Shs 45,000 for the ID".

Reportedly, none of the first year students has yet received their ID yet. For Annet Humura, a first year student of journalism and communication, Shs 45,000 for an ID card is a huge amount of money and a burden to parents to pay given the current economic crisis in the country.

"I call upon the university council to quickly act on the matter to avoid likely confrontations with the students," she advised.

For the recent years, Makerere's ID has been at Shs 15,000. This card consists of an electoral chip, name of student and photo, course or program, registration number and student number.

The other things on the ID are the hall of attachment, signature of the student and that of the academic registrar, date of expiry and address of the university. A university ID is majorly for identifying students and also helps them to access the library or borrow university equipment.

It is however, not clear if the new ID has been changed thus the reason for the increased fee.

Makerere University has been on numerous occasions at loggerheads with its students over its unilateral adjustments of fees and most of the demonstrations are often fees-triggered issues and lack of comprehensive consultations with the students' leaders.