Makerere university dilapidated buildings begin to receive a little more hope of renovation after the Lumumba hall renovation starts officially. The University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nawangwe Barnabas handed over the hall officially to the NEC Construction Works and Engineering Ltd, a subsidiary of the Defence Ministry’s National Enterprise Corporation.

Lumumba Hall is the oldest Hall of residence for male students at the University estimated to be carrying about 700 students. The popular hall was built in 1960’s and opened in 1971 as an independence gift to Uganda by the USA people.

NEC Construction Works and Engineering Ltd is also the same construction company that was contracted to build the university’s perimeter fence.

“We are satisfied with works that NEC has done on the perimeter fence and we are hopeful that the same speed and quality will be transferred here.” V.C: Nawangwe said.

The hall which was built 52 years ago closed in September after the resource strain spelt a threat on the lives of the student residents. In order to pave way for the renovations all students were asked to evacuate the premises including those that were in a recess program at the time.

“The structure will remain as it is. We shall just be doing a little bit of cleaning up on the surface outside but the interior has to be overhauled completely because the way it was constructed makes it vulnerable to weather because the doors are facing the exterior which is susceptible to deterioration”. Prof. Nawangwe

Over time, the hall has been confirmed by resident students to have broken toilets due to poor drainage and leaking roofs when it rains among other life threatening infrastructure fail. One of the reasons being the strain put on the resources since the hall due to increasing students each year is carrying beyond capacity.

Lumumba hall is just a sneak peep into the many dilapidated buildings at the university, many having served for many years without renovation. Structures like the Peace and Conflict Resolution Center which was built at the same time with the university, the other halls of residence like Mary Stuart, complex, are in terrible ruins yet still under usage.

 All the 13 halls of residence in the university are according to the university in the plan for renovation.

The renovation of Lumumba will take 9 billion with cost on government. The general university renovation is estimated at 100bn shillings. Th money will be released by Ministry Of Finance in phases.

Goes without saying that the Hall was named Lumumba after the Congo Kinshasa’s freedom fighter Patrick Lumumba.

courtesy photo.