- The Muslims are due to elect their new leaders under their body the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council.
- The Tours kicked off in Kumi District.
- The Uganda Muslim Community has two cdactiobs, the Kibuli Faction and Old Kampala faction.
The Mufti of Uganda His Eminence Sheikh Shaban Ramadhan Mubajje, has started reconciliation tours aimed at saving conflicts amongst Muslims across the country as Uganda Muslim Supreme Council awaits to elect new members of the Muslim body in July this year.
Sheikh Mubajje kicked off the said tours in Kumi Muslim District under Eastern Muslim Region were he met the two parallel camps allied to the Kadhi Sheikh Abdu-Wahab Kauta who had gathered with his supporters close to Kumi Muslim District Council offices while the Chairperson, Abdallah Ebokorait had converged with his team under a tree in the compound of Kumi Township Primary School before agreeing to meet in the compound of Kumi Muslim District Council Offices.
Sheikh Mubajje told the said Council that they have been able to identify various areas of conflicts that included management of Muslim Land and property, the position of Kumi District Chairman, disputes on the gazetted number of Muslim counties, pending Court Cases between the Kadhi and several Muslims, and the pending impeachment of Sheikh Abdu-Wahab Kauta.
A number of speakers including the PTA Chairperson of Kumi Township Primary School; Joseph Omonge,pinned Sheikh Kauta for being selfish and targeting large acreage of prime Muslim land in the heart of Kumi Town and part houses Kumi Township Primary School.
Omonget cited the dispute between the School Administration and District Kadhi about the funds paid by Uganda National Roads Authority-UNRA as compensation for encroaching on the school land during the tarmacking of Kumi-Palisa High Way; claiming that Sheikh Kauta agreed in writing that the money was to be deposited on School Bank Account but later changed his mind that the compensation money went to his personal Bank account, a proposal the school rejected.
He explained that 44million was remitted to the school account, which they used to fence the School and renovate some classroom blocks but failed to explain why they refuse the Kadhi to get involved in the School activities as the representative of the foundation body.
Several Muslims allied to Kauta with supporting documents, implicated a clique of the so-called concerned Muslims who claim to be fighting for the protection of Muslim properties, yet they have personalized, rented, or sold off some plots of land in disregard of the UMSC constitutional provisions.
When tasked to respond to the accusation, some of the implicated Muslims went defensive and contradicted each other while referring to themselves as members of an independent entity called Kumi Municipal Muslim Community.
They also denied authoring a Dec 12th, 2016 letter addressed to the Mufti claiming to have exited from the UMSC
"No portion of the land at the main Mosque was sold. In fact, we are now trying to develop and we are in process of getting a land title in the names Kumi Municipal Muslim Community and UMSC" said Ibrahim Okiria, the Mosque Committee chairperson.
When asked if he was aware that the said Property solely belongs to UMSC so that there is no way their private association would be a co-owner with UMSC and why he failed to consult UMSC, he had no answers.
He was also asked whether they made consultations with relevant UMSC Offices at the headquarters to which, he answered in the negative.
However, a one Abdi Yunus Anwar, who claimed to have been born in the area and was more conversant with land issues contradicted the chairperson and admitted that he even participated in one of the transactions where a plot of land was sold.