Africa-Press – Uganda. Last Friday, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) sacked its secretary general, Hajj Ramathan Mugalu, ending his eight-year tenure in the coveted position.
According to the UMSC constitution, the secretary general is the chief accounting officer of the Muslim apex body.
During the UMSC Joint Session chaired by Hajj Muhammad Lubega Kisambira, members voted Mr Muhammad Ali Aluma to serve as acting secretary general for three months.
According to a source that attended the meeting at the UMSC headquarters at Old Kampala, moments after being elected, Mr Aluma took an oath of allegiance and promised to serve in his new position.
Mr Aluma, a lawyer by profession, has been working with the UMSC education department.
UMSC spokesperson Ashraf Zziwa said a five-member team appointed by the Joint Session Committee on April 1 discovered that Hajj Mugalu was illegally occupying the office because his tenure expired in January.
“That Committee [Joint Session] is one of the top organs of the Council that nominates a person for the position of Secretary General and after a name is forwarded to the General Assembly for ratification,” he said.
However, Hajj Mugalu’s sacking has thrown UMSC management in disarray, creating fear that the General Assembly, the top decision-making organ of the council, may also seal Mufti Shaban Mubajje’s fate.
According to sources at UMSC, the 264-member General Assembly is expected to convene any time soon to discuss, among others, Mufti Mubajje’s continued grip on UMSC leadership.
Sheikh Adam Mbaziira, the outgoing UMSC secretary for social services, said Sheikh Mubajje should go with Mr Mugalu.
“Mufti Mubajje was useful to the Muslim community during his first 10 years in office but he has run down the institution and whatever he is doing today is disgusting, he needs to be pushed out if he cannot voluntarily resign,” he says.
“If we remain asleep he [Mubajje] is determined to sell even the remaining properties because the new constitution he promulgated with his colleague Kasenene [Edris], former UMSC secretary general, gives him absolute powers and even when he leaves office he cannot be sued,” he added.
Like Sheikh Mubajje, Kasenene has been at the centre of Muslim leadership wrangles in the last two decades.
Mufti Mubajje assumed office in December 2000 and his tenure expires in 2025. But his tenure has been characterised by endless accusations of engaging in dubious land transactions, which have cost the Muslim community some of its prime properties across the country.
While addressing the weekly UMSC National Management Committee meeting in his office at Old Kampala on Monday, Sheikh Mubajje unveiled Mr Aluma to the members.
Hajj Mugalu has since Monday not picked our repeated telephone calls to his known telephone number and had by press time not responded to them. But a source familiar with UMSC politics told this publication yesterday that Hajj Mugula might bounce back as he has done in the past.
“Mufti Mubajje has always acted like a politician in his leadership. He can push you out now when he doesn’t need you and bring you back to save him at some critical point, that is him,” a source says.
Mr Zziwa confirmed that when the post of Secretary General is advertised, Hajj Mugalu “will be free to reapply”.
“The position of secretary general is advertised according to the UMSC Constitution, so when that time comes, any Muslim possessing the relevant qualifications including Hajj Mugalu will be free to apply,” he said.
Last July, the UMSC executive fired Hajj Mugalu over allegations of abuse of office, and failure to provide accountability of funds from various Muslim properties sold off to individual developers. However, the Joint Session reinstated him in a move that was protested by a section of the General Assembly.
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