UMSC appeals to Nabakooba to reclaim contested Jinja land
A section of the disputed land being fenced off by UPDF Engineering Brigade on September 14, 2024. PHOTO | DENIS EDEMA
What you need to know:
- This latest petition follows JRRH's recent contract with the Engineering Brigade of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) to erect a perimeter wall on the contested land as a buffer.
The Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) has officially petitioned the Minister for Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, Ms Judith Nabakooba, in a renewed effort to reclaim 4.5 acres of land currently contested with Jinja Regional Referral Hospital (JRRH).
The land in question, located on Plots 31-39 Nile Avenue in Jinja Southern City Division, is adjacent to JRRH. In its petition, the UMSC urges Ms Nabakooba to collaborate with the Ministry of Health, the Office of the First Deputy Prime Minister, and the Minister for East African Affairs to facilitate a resolution.
“As you are aware, subject to several legal and other engagements, the 4.5 acres of disputed land between the UMSC and JRRF was ultimately handed over to the latter by the Uganda Land Commission (ULC),” the two-page letter dated October 23, 2024 reads in part.
“While we cannot argue with the legal status of the above, we still have a legitimate cause to ask for your intervention in ensuring that the Muslims in Jinja dead or alive are treated with humanity,” the letter signed by UMSC National Chairman, Prof Dr Muhamadi Lubega, added.
This latest petition follows JRRH's recent contract with the Engineering Brigade of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) to erect a perimeter wall on the contested land as a buffer. This action has restricted the Muslim community in Jinja from accessing a cemetery where they have buried their loved ones for the past 92 years. Prof Dr Lubega describes this situation as “humiliating, unrealistic, dehumanising, and unacceptable in society.”
“Muslims, like other Ugandans, deserve a better way to be buried or bury their loved ones. From my observation, the agitation and empathy over what is happening in Jinja is alarming.
“We need to sit and resolve all this on a round table. Of course, it is politically damaging for the government as well,” Prof Dr Lubega further notes in his letter copied to Ms [Rebecca] Kadaga, Ms Jane Ruth Aceng and JRRH, among others.
In August, Busoga Regional Khadi, Dr. Hussein Muhammad Bowa, sought President Museveni’s intervention regarding the contested land, highlighting that it has been used by the Muslim community since 1932.
“Your Excellency, candidly speaking on my behalf and on behalf of the entire Muslim community in Jinja, I must say we are greatly saddened and inevitably pushed into restlessness by this development.
“The burial place holds deep cultural, emotional and religious values and so the (Uganda Lands) Commission purporting to allocate the same to self-seekers as said, shall certainly desecrate the cemetery,” the latter dated August 28, 2024 reads in part.
It adds: “Your Excellency, the Jinja Muslim Community (UMSC) premised on the disputed fact of ownership and use of the land as a cemetery, has by extension and without interruption since 1932, been used for access, easement, parking and pre-burial rites.”
Dr Bowa stated that they approached President Museveni after previously writing to the ULC for access to their cemetery but had yet to receive a response.
JRRH Director, Dr Alfred Yayi, however, indicated in a separate interview with Monitor that the UMSC had been advised to formally request access to the cemetery but had not done so.
“The UMSC was advised to write to the user of the land (Jinja Hospital), requesting for access to their cemetery, but they haven’t written to us yet.
“Jinja Hospital has since contracted the UPDF Engineering Brigade to erect a perimeter wall at Shs300m as a security measure to ward off encroachers on the land,” said Dr Yayi.
