Flanked by his Head of Department, Dr. Michael Solomon Serunjogi sometime in 2019 stumbled on Kyambogo University’s Director Human Resources Development Mr. Richard K Manano and verbally requested him for permission to travel to UAE at whose Khalifa University he had allegedly been admitted to do his post-doctoral academic program.
Mr. Manano objected and advised Dr. Sserunjogi not to dare travel for the program because that was inappropriate and prohibited under the provisions of the University’s HRM Manual since he was barely a year into the University service. The Electrical & Electronics Engineering lecturer had only worked at Kyambogo University from 1st February 2019 and here he was (December 2019) demanding to be permitted to be away for 6 months. In fact, he was seeking permission to be away even before his employment at Kyambogo University had been confirmed.
Dr. Sserunjogi was determined to go and this is why he subsequently ignored the Director HR’s objections and travelled to UAE to commence his training. That’s how he ended up absconding and being absent from work for more than a year, something over which the University Council recently convened a meeting to consider his along with similar cases of abscondment from duty. Being away from work for more than a year and without permission is punishable under the Kyambogo HR Manual.
Dr. Serunjogi, on realizing the Governing Council was inquiring into the circumstances of his unauthorized absence, reached out to his head of department. He wrote indicating to her he was unable to promptly return after 6 months as had originally been promised because of the global travel restrictions that resulted from the COVID19 lockdown which constrained movement worldwide. That this is why he couldn’t fly back to resume his teaching duties at Kyambogo-having been locked away in UAE.
The University has officially insisted that being absent from work in circumstances similar to Sserunjogi’s is contrary to Regulation 16.2.8 of the Kyambogo University’s Human Resources Manual 2014 (as amended). Dr. Sserunjogi also made worse his already bad case by ignoring several emailed inquiries the Director HR wrote to him demanding to know what he was still doing in UAE.
When he subsequently replied, Dr. Sserunjogi apologised to his employer, Kyambogo University, and went ahead to explain that the COVID19 movement restrictions, that were in force worldwide, made it hard for him to promptly travel from UAE’s Khalifa University back to Uganda to resume his teaching duties at Kyambogo University.
That his travel documents expired during the same lockdown further making things more complicated for him. That even without physically being in Uganda, he was able to conduct his lecture sessions through electronic means. That he improvised and eventually became able to effectively deliver online lectures to more than 150 electrical engineering students both in 3rd and 4th year at Kyambogo University. The final decision on his case is expected soon after all formalities have been hammered out