Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered for immediate withdrawal of military from the country's prestigious Makerere University.

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For a week now, Ugandan Patriotic Defense Forces have been manning the institution, often filmed leapfrogging students for alleged participation in protests.

While address NRM legislators in Kampala on Tuesday, Museveni denied knowledge about deployement of the troops, calling for immediate withdrawal.

“The military is not trained to quell demonstrations, they are trained to kill. Those students are not enemies, they are young children, grandchildren who need to be guided to do the right thing,” he said.

The students have been protesting over unfair 15% cumulative increment in tuition fees, the doubling of functional fees, vice chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe’s highhandedness and the appalling state of halls of residences.

Museveni’s wife, Janet Kataaha, was meant to address the MPs on the strike but skipped the meeting.

The presence of the military has attracted condemnation from international community with the United States expressing concerns over torture by the officers inflicted on students.

“The U.S. Mission in Uganda is increasingly concerned about the violence at Makerere University in response to ongoing protests against the proposed tuition increases. Footage of security services attacking unarmed students in their residence halls and attacks on journalists covering the protests are especially disturbing,” partly reads the statement posted online by the embassy.

“This heavy-handed response by security services is uncalled for, and is a direct affront to the freedoms of assembly, speech and expression guaranteed by Uganda’s Constitution. We urge the Government of Uganda to allow all Ugandans to exercise their basic rights peacefully and without fear,” the Americans further said.

Museveni on Tuesday disagreed with statements by both his wife and the police that linked the strike to politics. He pointed a finger of blame at the breakdown in communication between the university’s administrators and the students’ leadership.

He told his MPs that he had spoken to the chairperson of the University Council, Lorna Magara and the guild president, Julius Kateregga, and urged them to resolve the issues through dialogue.