Sometime last week, I’m strolling through the streets of Kampala, checking out the bevies of beautiful girls, when I came about a news stand with some newspapers. One headline from a New Vision newspaper caught my eye: “Makerere University Ranked 5th Best in Africa by UK Times”. Banae karibu nianguke! How in the world is that true. Been to the school myself (albeit not to study but check on some friends), and from the onset, the place reeks confusion. It beats my understanding how a school that has been in the headlines lately for all the wrong reasons, surpasses some of our very well established universities. I get it, research and facilities are vital factors that come into play here but still, here is a school purpoting to be the 5th best in Africa (mind you according to that list, the other top 4 are all S.A unis), yet it ranks No.1 on Google for the term “sex for marks” (try it yourself and see). Bear in mind all the other ranking institutions (Webometrics and 4icu), rank the school way lower than two of our leading universities. Makerere, for the past year, has been rocked by massive financial scandals, go slows and sex scandals, with evidence to boot. Yaani I was so appalled by this hadi I did some further research on which ranking entity came up with that bogus list. To my surprise, the alleged ‘UK Times’ turned out to be “Times Higher Education”, a ranking company plagued with similar complaints regarding the same. The article from New Vision (take in mind that this is Nationa Media Group newspaper) further claims that Makerere’s School of Medicine is the 2nd best in Africa. That actually made me laugh :D:D:D:D. Yaani some top administrators from the school sought the services of this shitty website to help them sanitize the tainted name of the school and prolong their tenure by fooling Ugandans, and the bonobos bought the story hook, line and sinker. Amazingly, the mharo media bought the story as well.
Yaani hadi some disillusioned clinical officer had the audacity kuniambia ati in Kenya we are in so much of a shortage of doctors hadi 80% ya madaktari wetu ni waganda. Heri ata angesema we have Cuban expatriate doctors, but my response was equally demeaning: Labda wale wa mitishamba na love spells with their illegible posters hanging in all the dingy nooks of Nairobi! These Ugandans lakini!! Huwa know-it-alls na kubishana mingi mingi bila facts. They’ve been made to believe that they have the best troops, govt and lifestyle, but ati shida ni pesa yao iko undervalued. Meyn! How do you even believe that! Na sio peke yako! As a nation! Hio maneno ya Makerere, Nation Media mliniangusha vi-serious! Research ya 5 min hamuwezi ata fanya! Shenji type!
Provide evidence and facts that Makerere is not a good research university. And stop quoting sex scandals since that has nothing to do with the quality of a university. MIT students are well known for being drunkards. Havard University students love partying alot. That does not mean that MIT or Havard are low quality universities. Try to give us real tangible evidence that Makerere is lower than UON. Talk about the number of research articles published in peer reviewed journals in both universities. Talk about the number and quality of research labs in each university. Talk about the number of full professors in both universities. Talk about the innovation of students (Makerere students invented the first electric bus in Africa and drove it from Kampala to UNEP in Nairobi. What innovation has UON students ever come up with?) Finally talk about the impact of the university on the economy of a country. Makerere produces more than 70% of all university graduates in Uganda, that is an overwhelming impact on an economy. Mind you every year thousands of Kenyans and Tanzanians also graduate from Makerere but that is not true for UON. By the way i did not study at Makerere, i just hate people who misconstrue facts because of their biased point of view.