Muslims petition Museveni to access Jinja cemetery
Muslims conduct Eid prayers on the contested land in Jinja City on April 10, 2024. PHOTO/DENIS EDEMA
What you need to know:
- The Jinja hospital director, Dr Alfred Yayi, said UMSC was advised to formally request access to their cemetery, but as of now, no such request has been made.
The Muslim community in Jinja City are struggling to bury their loved ones after the Ministry of Health blocked access to a cemetery they have been using for 92 years.
In an October 17 letter, Mr Abubaker Maganda Timuntu, the chairperson of Forum of Democratic Change (FDC) in Jinja City, petitioned the President Museveni to intervene in the matter.
“The Ministry of Health has denied Muslims access to the cemetery by erecting a strong perimeter wall. This has been mostly used by the Muslims, especially from West Nile, Acholi , western Uganda who can’t afford transport to those areas,’’ the letter reads in part.
Mr Maganda wants the government to allocate Muslims part of the 100 acres belonging to the National Forest Authority in Kamaka as an alternative for the cemetery.
“…..my humble appeal to the President is to direct the people concerned to allocate us 10 acres of NFA land in Kimaka as an alternative for the land taken by the Ministry of Health,’’ he said.
In an August 28 letter, the Busoga Regional Khadi, Dr Hussein Muhammed Bowa, also asked President Museveni to intervene in the issue.
The cemetery, which was established in 1932 on Plots 31-39, Nile Avenue in Jinja City Southern Division adjacent to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital (JRRH) is under the management of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC).
However, Jinja Muslim Community and the management of Jinja hospital have been in a dispute over the four-acre piece of land where Muslims have been burying the dead.
During a meeting in April, the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) ordered Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to vacate the disputed land because it belongs to ULC and Jinja hospital has been given rights to use it.
Jinja hospital engaged the Engineering Brigade of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces to construct a wall fence around the land.
Mr Habibu Muhmmad, a resident who lost her aunt this week, said her family failed to access the cemetery.
‘’We had to use temporary ladders to jump the dead body to access the burial site. My aunt died in Mombasa but this is the only place where we bury our relatives,” he said.
Mr Musa Sekabira, one of the security guards at the cemetery, said they bury close to five dead bodies monthly.
The Jinja hospital director, Dr Alfred Yayi, said UMSC was advised to formally request access to their cemetery, but as of now, no such request has been made.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION
In an October 6, 2009 case between UMSC and Uganda Land Commission over ownership of the same land, Justice Michael Elubu, on April 18, 2022, ruled in favour of the Commission.
The Commission then gave the land to Jinja hospital for use. On March 12, the State minister for Lands, Mr Sam Mayanja, visited the disputed land and resolved that the land belongs to Muslims because they have been using it since 1927. However, some locals protested against the decsion on March 21
