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Mubajje survives as censure motion fails
Mufti Shaban Mubajje
What you need to know:
- The motion was not on agenda and last-minute attempt by petitioners to introduce it during the assembly sitting at UMSC conference hall, Od Kampala, failed.
The anticipated censure motion against Mufti Shaban Mubajje collapsed yesterday after a section of members of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) General Assembly failed to table it.
The motion, which was aimed at ending Mufti Mubajje’s 22-year grip at the helm of Muslim leadership, was not on agenda and last-minute attempt by petitioners to introduce it during the assembly sitting at UMSC conference hall, Od Kampala, failed.
The same motion was also targeting the UMSC secretary general Ramathan Mugalu and chairperson Abdul Nadduli.
“Since the censure motion wasn’t on the agenda, one of the delegates, who initiated the motion, had to raise his hand at the beginning of the session to have it added [on the agenda], but no one bothered, confirming reports that they had already been compromised,” a source at UMSC, who preferred anonymity, said.
Top on the day’s agenda was a discussion and endorsement of the draft constitution, election of new electoral commission and approving a new roadmap for UMSC general elections.
Some disgruntled delegates accuse the Mufti, the UMSC secretary general and the chairperson of being dictatorial and overthrowing the UMSC constitution.
In their seven-page petition, which leaked on Monday, the delegates claimed that the three top UMSC leaders had arbitrarily sold off Muslim property, embezzled funds, caused financial loss to the council and needed to be thrown out.
Interestingly, Mr Nadduli, who chairs the General Assembly, also doubles as the chairperson of the UMSC executive, as well as the chairperson for the Joint Session (executive and college of learned sheikhs).
“He [Nadduli] is the one who presided over the executive that sacked Mugalu, but after money exchanged hands, the same person again convened a joint session and reinstated him, is that transparency?” another source asked.
In last week’s move to reinstate Mr Mugalu as secretary general, insiders intimated to Daily Monitor that each member of the Joint Session bagged Shs9m. “If people entrusted with leadership positions can accept bribes to overturn what they had earlier endorsed, it is a clear manifestation they are unfit to occupy those offices and need to be thrown out,” one of the delegates from Masaka, said.
The media was barred from covering the proceedings of the assembly and there was heavy deployment of police and plain clothed informers at UMSC headquarters during the three-day meeting.
The delegates complained that they were neither served food nor drinking water during yesterday’s session.
Some, who were deemed critical of the top leadership, were allegedly denied copies of the draft constitution in time.
“It was deliberate to delay the distribution of copies of the constitution because they knew we were ready to raise dust. Some got copies in the evening, while others did not,”another source said.
According to sources, Mufti Mubajje personally pleaded with delegates to endorse the new constitution, saying it will cure the perennial conflicts within the Muslim community.
By press time, no conclusive position had been taken on the proposed new constitution.
Last evening, UMSC spokesperson Ashiraf Muvawala could not answer repeated telephone calls from this newspaper to respond to issues raised by some delegates. But in a WhatsApp message Mr Muvawala had earlier shared, he said delegates had endorsed the creation of a 10th Muslim region known as North Eastern Muslim Region comprising Karamoja, Teso, Kotido and Kumi Muslim District.
