Muslims from Nakasero Mosque have come out to protest against the decision by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC), headed by Mufti Ramadan Mubajje to dissolve Kampala district leadership and proposed plans to sell off Kitante Muslim land.
UMSC on February 9, declared the operationalisation of the Muslim regional structure administration following a resolution said to have been passed during the UMSC General Assembly which sat on 28 and 29 November 2016.
According to UMSC leadership, the assembly established 9 Muslim regions of Kampala, West Buganda, East Buganda, Busoga, Eastern, Northern, West Nile, Ankole- Kigezi and Tooro- Bunyoro, and in effect dissolved the district of Kampala.
However, while addressing the media after Juma prayers on Friday, the Secretary General Jamuiyyat Da’awa Assalafiyya (Nakasero Mosque), Ayub Nyende said that they are not against the Muslim regional administration but rather opposed to the manner in which they were set up without any resolution passed by UMSC and believe this was done in bad faith.
Nyende clarified that the General Assembly resolution on November 2016 from which UMSC purports to derive the mandate of forming the regional administrations simply concerned the confirmation of Haji Ramadhan Mugalu as Secretary General and had nothing to do with the establishment of the said structures.
“We believe the failure of UMSC top leadership to forcefully take over Masjid Noor William Street after procuring the services of the boda boda 2010 hooligans pushed them in panic and is the reason behind this announcement,” Nyende said.
He said that the intervention of the UMSC Kampala district administration which publicly condemned the use of violence and restored sanity pushed them far and resorted to employing this mechanism to unlawfully dissolve the district administration to allow them come closer to create confusion at the mosque.
He noted that UMSC fears that Kampala Muslim District will take charge and participate in the Kitante land negotiations with government pushing them away from the deal hence resolving to dissolve the district.
“We wish to notify the public that we have resorted to Courts of law, we have sued H.E the Mufti of Uganda, the Hon. Secretary General of UMSC Hajji Ramadhan Mugalu and the Chairman of the General Assembly Dr. Abdukadir Balonde”.
“We demand that UMSC is forced to recant the declaration made on the 9th February 2018 at UMSC headquarters Kampala and immediately restrain from implementing any such regional administrations until a proper law is in place to guide their operations.
“We also demand that UMSC is forced to hold elections to allow properly and legally constituted structures of UMSC from the mosque to the General Assembly”.