Ex-Kyambogo staff deny deleting data of graduands

Five former Kyambogo University employees have denied erasing the results and data of around 29,000 students, including graduates, from the university’s system.

Kyambogo University stated last week that the e-campus system that holds student data had been destroyed and could not be recovered. The university’s website was taken down for a day before being restored.

The university has charged five former system administrators of destroying the data.

Shamusu Zziwa, Joseph Katongole, Philemon Wenganga, Hudson Kisitu, and Joshua Muzaaya are among the group. The police searched their office, Zeenode Company in Kiwatule, last week and detained them, but they were freed on police bond the next day.

The suspects worked as assistant information technology officers at the university’s Directorate of ICT until resigning a few months ago. Muzaaya refuted the claims during a news conference on Sunday, claiming that they are not to blame for the problems at the university.

Muzaaya claims that when they left, they gave the institution the ICT system as well as other property.

Prof Eli Katunguka, Vice-Chancellor, expressed optimism that the destroyed results and data would be recovered.

According to Charles Twine, a spokesperson for the Criminal Investigations Directorate, the police are currently looking into the case. Other services compromised, according to Twine, include university servers, library systems, and university email.

From September 21 to 23, Kyambogo is scheduled to graduate around 7,500 pupils.