Popular Makerere University lecturer and social media firebrand, Dr. Stella Nyanzi has laughed off rumours circulating on various online news sites that she has been sacked from the university.
“Liars, I am a permanent staff of Makerere University,” is how she summed it up when Matooke Republic reached her for a comment.
The speculation of her firing started after a post she put on her Facebook wall on Friday morning, indicating that her boss, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani of the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) wanted to evict her from her office.
“My boss, Mahmood Mamdani, is evicting me from my office because I refused to teach on his PhD program. He also alleges that I am not doing ‘MISR research’. Today is the deadline for the eviction,” she had earlier posted.
We have established that though there has been simmering tension between her and Mamdani, he has no powers to fire her from the university, but he had wanted to exercise his powers as the head of the Institute to evict her from her office, so that it is used by staff on his Phd programme.
Stella contested this battle for office space, taking the matter to higher authorites at the university. She also took it to the court of public opinion, posting on her popular Facebook wall:
“Mahmood Mamdani is evicting me from a public office as if I am a poor tenant in one of his private buzigo,” she posted.
By the time of filing this, Stella had noted even moved a single file from the office.