Tugiizire
Tension is rife at Kyambogo University following complaints of a ‘reign of terror’ allegedly unleashed on the university community by a senior police officer.
Our reliable Inspectors have identified the accused officer as SSP Allan Tugiizire, the university’s Chief Security Officer.
Documents obtained by this publication show that, as we speak, Tugiizire’s alleged antics have reached unbearable limits, forcing university staff to launch a cry for help to the university’s top administration.
The staffers’ complaints are contained in a June 25, 2026 letter which they, through Mary Birungi, the chairperson of the Kyambogo University Senior Academic Staff Association (KYUSASA), submitted to their bosses, including the University Secretary, Vice Chancellor, Academic Registrar, University Bursar and all the Deputy Vice Chancellors.
Titled “COMPLAINTS ON THE CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER,” the letter cites a litany of malicious, intimidating and costly actions that Tugiizire has allegedly subjected them to as a result of what they describe as his rough methods of work.
In their letter, the staff want the university authorities to rein in Tugiizire, whose actions they say are working against the university’s progress and a cordial working environment.
“These actions have disrupted official duties, obstructed legitimate academic work, caused many students/parents to turn down Kyambogo admissions and caused distress among the university community,”reads part of the complaint letter.
Details
It is worth noting that, being a serving police officer, SSP Tugiizire was simply seconded to Kyambogo University and is therefore not its permanent employee.
According to the Public Service Standing Orders, the Chief Security Officer must execute his duties subject to the Terms of Reference contained in a Memorandum of Understanding that his parent employer, the Uganda Police Force, signed with Kyambogo University.
He is also not attached to the Kyambogo University Police Station, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Uganda Police Force but is housed within the university to maintain law and order within the university community and surrounding areas, including Kamuli, Banda and Kyambogo Industrial Area, among others.
A lone ranger
Ideally, this arrangement makes the Chief Security Officer subject to the agreed terms of engagement, which the staffers say he has totally deviated from.
According to the staff, Tugiizire has since assumed a rare air of importance, making himself an alpha and omega of sorts — an attitude they say has rendered his actions confusing and bordering on unprofessionalism.
“The man acts with total disregard to affected people’s explanations, even where he can corroborate their information and offer them the necessary help. He actually acts like those Buddo Junior School askaris who denied villagers access to the burning dormitories when the fire broke out; they simply insisted that their bosses refused them to allow outsiders into the school, yet the children were burning helplessly,” explained one of the concerned staff members, while painting a picture of what they described as the irrationality with which Tugiizire sometimes acts.
The complaints
According to the complaint letter, Tugiizire is accused of orchestrating a long list of inconveniencing acts that have affected students, staff and visitors at the university.
“Numerous members of staff, including permanent and temporary employees who are awaiting official work identity cards but who can provide alternative means of identification, e.g. appointment letters, payslips, have on multiple occasions been prevented/denied from accessing the university by the security personnel under the Chief Security Officer’s orders,” the staffers state.
They also claim that, during the post-examination period, students engaged in approved activities such as school practice, industrial training and research have been wrongly restricted from accessing the campus, contrary to their academic needs.
Some students have also allegedly been denied entry to the university for lacking identity cards, yet in many instances the delay in issuing the IDs rests with the university.
“Some of such students have either missed exams or entered examination rooms late after losing valuable time pleading to gain access through the university gates.”
Tugiizire is also accused in the letter of detaining or confining staff members in ways that exceed his lawful or institutional authority.
The report further alleges that, on many occasions, students applying to join the university have been blocked from accessing the institution to either pick admission letters or make admission-related enquiries. This, the staff claim, has caused some prospective students to opt against joining the university because of frustration by the security personnel under Tugiizire.
The complaint also claims that some university service providers carrying out business within the institution have not been spared Tugiizire’s alleged arrogant conduct.
“On many occasions he has blocked them from taking their merchandise through the university gates even after several attempts to identify themselves and even show proof of their contractual obligations with the university,” the letter states.
It should also be noted that one of the prominent businesses within Kyambogo University is Stanbic Bank, which operates a branch there. It has, however, emerged that on many occasions some of its clients have found it difficult to navigate through the university’s gates to access services.
The university also has a medical centre that serves students, staff and their immediate family members. However, the facility is situated within the university campus, while only a small percentage of staff live within the university.
This means that many relatives of staff who are beneficiaries of the facility live outside the university and do not have IDs. As expected, many have allegedly fallen victim to what the complainants describe as Tugiizire’s “Buddo-like” blind ID enforcement policy, resulting in some missing much-needed medical attention.
The staff arrests
Reports have also emerged of a much-discussed incident in which, upon arriving at the university, Tugiizire allegedly unilaterally branded the university’s low-ranking staffers as land grabbers for simply remaining on and using staff quarters allocated to them.
The affected staff, according to our Inspectors, include office attendants, custodians, security guards, craftsmen and others.
We have learnt that, based on the Chief Security Officer’s intelligence report, the staffers, who totalled 27, were dragged to the Makindye Police Land Division.
However, upon commencing investigations, the land division police investigators were reportedly bewildered after learning that the staff had been allocated the land by the university to live on as part of their employment terms — the same way companies provide residential quarters to their employees.
On March 3, 2026, the affected staff petitioned the National Union of Educational Institutions, seeking intervention in the matter.
In their letter to the Union’s Kyambogo University Branch Chairperson, the staff explained that they live on the land as university employees and by virtue of their employment status, but not as land grabbers.
They therefore sought the union’s intervention to have what they described as bogus and unfounded land-grabbing charges withdrawn.
Indeed, the charges were withdrawn, but fresh charges of Criminal Trespass and Unlawful Construction of a House were slapped on them vide Kyambogo CRB 006/2026.
Charges quashed
Like the first charges, however, police investigations reportedly found no merit in the criminal trespass cases.
This was after it was discovered that the university staff had been living and planting kitchen gardens on the swath of land even before Kyambogo became a university.
To further dampen the case, police reportedly discovered that it was the university that had constructed toilets for the staff at the premises and had, for more than 20 years, been deducting electricity bills from their salaries by virtue of their residence on the allegedly grabbed — or soon-to-be-grabbed — land.
Police therefore discontinued the investigations and advised that the matter be handled administratively by the university.
We have also established that, while Tugiizire is not attached to the Kyambogo University Police, his influence has grown tremendously there, to the extent that he allegedly gives orders to junior officers at the station, yet they are supposed to be supervised by the Jinja Road DPC.
A source also reported that he interferes in deployments, much to the chagrin of some police officers.
A connected fellow
According to our reliable Inspectors, there is growing frustration at the university, stemming from the university bosses’ perceived indifference to a growing problem that staff have complained about for a long time.
However, this inaction is attributed to claims that, before the university’s higher echelons, Tugiizire passes off as some sort of powerful power broker within the powers that be.
We have established that, for a long time — and even as we speak — the university has been a hotspot for critical procurement-related investigations involving the Inspectorate of Government.
A case in point are ongoing procurement case involving MFI Document Solutions Ltd and another company named HEMIS Consortium Ltd. According to documents from the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), irregularities regarding these procurements were flagged by whistleblowers on March 25, 2026, and received by the PPDA on March 31, 2026. In the MFI Solutions case, Kyambogo University is being accused of paying the company more than Shs2bn for printing services it didn’t use.
For HEMIS, whistleblowers flagged the PPDA, IGG and state house anti-corruption Unit to investigate possible conflict of interest and insider trading regarding the company’s dealings with the university.
We have learnt from our ever-alert Inspectors that through physical documents and their soft copy versions that were sent via alphabarristers19@gmail.com, the whistleblowers argued that HEMIS Consortium Limited could have possibly been opened as a clearing house for quick deals.
The whistleblowers claim that a search at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau show that the company, which was incorporated on April 9, 2024, under number 80034606130191, has directors who include Kyambogo University Vice Chancellor Prof. Eli Katunguka, the university’s Chief ICT Officer John Okuonzi, and Gulu University Vice Chancellor Openjuru George Ladaah.
Other directors are Dr Nkata James Luyonga, the Director General of the Uganda Management Institute, and Dr Kakumba Omar, the former Deputy Vice Chancellor of Makerere University.
It is now thought by some staff that, being a high-ranking police officer, Tugiizire is of strategic importance and a priceless connection in case any investigations go wayward.
Not the first time
Our investigations have however shown that this is not the first time SSP Tugiizire’s methods of work have rubbed those he serves the wrong way. Records show that in January 2012, Tugiizire was indefinitely suspended from duty as Luuka District Police Commander, on allegations of abuse of office and failure to observe the professional code of ethics.
His suspension at the time was was ordered by the then Commandant of the Police Professional Standards Unit, Samuel Kyomukama. Kyomukama ordered the then South Eastern Regional Police Commander, Bernard Mubangizi, to suspend Tugiizire pending further investigations into community complaints that the DPC was non-compliant and solicited bribes before intervening in matters reported to him.
The staff’s prayers
It is against the above background that the university staff want:
- their complaints against Tugiizire investigated swiftly and fairly;
- the university to re-orient Tugiizire and his junior security staff; and
- Tugiizire to be reminded that staff are not governed by his whims and wishes, but by the university administration under powers derived from the university’s Human Resources Manual and other relevant legislation and procedures.
“We also want him to be reminded that he has to act within the confines of the Police Act and act as a police officer as opposed to thinking he is an administrator of the university,” a concerned staff member said.
SSP Tugiizire Speaks Out
However, SSP Tugiizire denied the allegations levelled against him, calling them a deliberate effort to malign him.
In a telephone interview with our reporter, Tugiizire explained that, whereas some of the complaints levelled against him may be valid from the complainants’ perspective, they were dealt with within accepted procedural measures which he undertook within the confines of his job description.
“I found the university in a total mess security-wise; so I drew up a work plan that was approved by my bosses,” he said.
Tugiizire noted that the complainants are part of the group which previously benefited from the former security laxity and were therefore greatly disadvantaged by the new order of doing things.
Old security lapses explained
According to Tugiizire, he joined Kyambogo University at a time when its security was enforced in what he described as an annoyingly laissez-faire manner.
“There was uncontrolled access to the university by everybody, including idlers and boda boda cyclists who unfortunately fuelled crime, including break-ins at halls of residence, phone grabbing, and also motorcycle and vehicle theft. The university was also full of unlicensed vendors who operated from all over the place, while people operated illegal gardens within the university premises,” he explained.
Tugiizire also added that, at the time, about 30 police officers stayed within the university despite not working there or being attached to Kyambogo University Police.
“Sadly, the officer attached to Kyambogo Police had no accommodation there,” he explained.
The tough measures
Tugiizire explained that, because this laxity had become the norm at the university, he — in 2024, with the blessing of the university’s top bosses — designed tough measures to address it once and for all.
These, however, necessitated strictness during enforcement, hence a tough enforcement plan.
The first step was to control entry into the university because there were even statistics to support strict intervention, he said, explaining that Kyambogo Police records at the time showed that up to 90 phones, 16 motorcycles and a vehicle had been stolen from the university.
To address this, all lecturers, students and visitors were required to access the university only upon presenting IDs, while boda bodas were totally restricted from entering the university, except when delivering approved essential items.
Vehicles were also stopped from entering the university, except for those owned by lecturers and students and registered by the security department.
All cleaners and other service providers were also required to wear labelled uniforms to reduce the number of idlers, many of whom would come to the university to enjoy free Wi-Fi.
Other security measures he suggested and which were adopted by the university’s top hierarchy included the installation of CCTV cameras within the university, as well as stopping illegal gardening on university land.
About the land, Tugiizire revealed that he took the drastic step based on his experience, which showed that people usually claim land they have used for a long time as their own.
“There was therefore a danger of these people potentially grabbing the university land and/or selling it,” he said.
Owing to the above interventions, Tugiizire says the results have been glaring for all to see, except the detractors.
“We have managed to reduce cases of theft and loss of property. The students also get IDs on time because that’s one of the recommendations we gave; it is therefore not true that students miss exams,” he said.
Tugiizire adds that it is such visible change and results that have endeared him to the university bosses, and not because they see him as any resource beyond his core mandate.
He therefore believes the complaints levelled against him are a result of envy and resistance to change, rather than credible outcries of torture.
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