Police in Kampala have today morning netted unemployed fresh graduates from Makerere University who stormed the streets to demonstrate against the continued lack of jobs in the country. The graduates, who showed up rocking their graduation gowns were arrested while holding placards reading ‘What’s Next?’
In one of the videos making rounds online, one the female fresh graduates was recorded calling upon her fellow unemployed graduates to ask what’s next?
“Well, many ask and we don’t know what the answer is but we know there are many of you like us out there who have graduated, have no jobs and you don’t know what’s next but together we can find out what’s next. “ she said.
This comes at a time when more than 10,000 students have recently graduated from Uganda’s top leading University, Makerere University in various professions and others across the country. Over the years, the issue of unemployment has been a big problem to the development of the country and has also contributed to the high crime rate in the country.
However, the police had no kind answer for them as they replied their question by picking them up and driving to a yet to be identified location. Journalists who were not barred from covering the process were left with questions on ‘What’s next?’ after arresting the students.
The recently concluded Makerere 70th graduation ceremony saw a total of 13,510 students conferred upon degrees and awarded diplomas in various disciplines. Of these, 62 received PhDs, 1,173 Masters Degrees and 119 Postgraduate Diplomas, while 12,156 got undergraduate diplomas and Bachelors Degrees. It is most likely that the majority of these are still on streets, with no jobs.
