Fifteen students of Makerere have been arrested today for protesting the 15 percent cumulative tuition increment which the university council approved last year.

Led by the vice president Judith Nalukwago, the students were trying to march to the President's Office to deliver a petition imploring government to scrap off the policy.

“This university is for poor students. Those who increased the tuition have their children studying outside this country. Mr President please halt this policy and relieve us,” Nalukwago said.

However, as students continued with their riot, their progress was intercepted outside the university Main Gate by soldiers and police who had been around campus since morning as the intention for the strike was earlier known. But this did not stop students from continuing with their plans. The students who were arrested are currently detained at Wandegeya police station pending investigation.

Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, said that the students should stop de-campaigning the tuition increment policy at this time because it was approved by the university council. According to him, students will not achieve anything by protesting.

“Tell those few students de-campaigning the policy at this time to stop because it was approved by the university council. They should not use that method they are using to remove it," said Prof. Nawangwe in a telephone conversation.

Although the VC has recently been heard congratulating students upon what he called a new culture of a strike-free society, this has not come to pass. Soldiers and police remain heavily deployed at the university.