Who is Simon Ssenyonga?

Simon Ssenyonga is a third year student of Makerere University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in law. I went to City Parents School-Sir Apollo Kagwa, Seeta High school for o-level and Nalya for A- level.

I have a humble background of leadership and so I have served Makerere University not only within its political circles but also the civic society.

Am also a born again Christian.

You are a good dancer, you made nice moves at Primetime@ the pool, what else do people don’t know about you?

Simon is a very humble person, quite an introvert which could be a cut out figure for any politician.

Isn’t being an introvert going to affect your political ambitions?

It’s not that introverts are not people persons because we learn how to get out of our cages and meet people; after all it’s not all about you but them.

Are you party affiliated?

No. I am an independent candidate

Isn’t it hard for you to concentrate at law school and also juggle politics?

It is very tight but again it is a question of priority, if you want to see this university in a better place then you have to pay the price and it’s also for a short while.

What is that challenge that forced you to want to become the guild president that you must address if elected?

It a question of the implementation of some of these wrong policies because we are caught up between a rock and a hard place. Even when these policies are not necessarily wrong they need to be implemented in a way that won’t affect the students.

So I need to plan effectively to see how best we can lobby for a better position of the student’s community and to also have a Guild representative council that can effectively and consultatively represent every student within the university.

What do you owe the university?

Our campaign is based on a three summary point and more so on the slogan, “making the difference” and we intend to make the difference by instilling a fully consultative leadership that focuses on the politics beyond just an election, having a fully transformative guild leadership, one that focuses on the wholesome involvement of all the students but most importantly for a student who joins the institution, because they have earned their position and so they deserve and  an equitable and  just society

It’s just a few days to the voting day, what have you done so far and what is left for you to do so you can win the election?

There are those who will be mean but the positive feedback is a lot and I know I will win the election. No doubt. but we only need to do some more little work like reaching out to people who we have not yet reached, increasing our publicity and marketing our message more  and prayer because I believe before winning anything physically, must be first won spiritually and then we will be good to go.

Most people are not satisfied with the leadership of the current government, why do you think they are not?

Both the leaders and the students have a problem. The leaders are not accountable to students and students want to extort money from a candidate who will first get back his or her money back, when he or she gets in office, but the biggest problem is this notion of a fighter, the current guild president won an election in just three days, he never went through the test and sieve process and at the end of the day it’s the students paying the price.

The most pressing issue at the time is delayed results and missing marks, how will you address that?

We shall create a strong lobbying system between the guild leadership and the administration and I also believe in civil disobedience when our rights are trampled upon, we need to exercise our rights by demonstrations, petitions but we can also order for injunctions like in the graduation case, graduation would have been paused until all the students supposed to graduate are cleared.

Why do these demonstrations turn into violent strikes?

We have a very reactionary police that engages a lot of force and student never strike not until police comes in.

Are you a leader who will lead peaceful demonstrations?

I will be glad to lead both peaceful demonstrations and otherwise and that is broader than even the violent ones but can include any other range as long as we are heard.