The Islamic store of knowledge goes to sleep

Kibuli-based Supreme Mufti Zubair Kayongo died on Thursday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where he had gone to join fellow top Muslim leaders for a convention. Photos by Abubaker Lubowa

What you need to know:

In August 2004, he led special prayers at Kibuli mosque to pray for a federal system of government. He also attended last Monday’s Kabaka Ronal Mutebi’s birthday fete at Bulange-Mengo, despite feeling unwell

Kampala. When Kibuli-based Supreme Mufti Zubair Kayongo travelled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to join fellow top Muslim leaders for a convention on Monday evening, little did he know that the cruel hands of death had waited to snatch his life from a foreign land.
Sheikh Kayongo, 83, who last made a public appearance at Kabaka Mutebi’s 60th birthday celebrations on Monday, died of high blood pressure midway the convention.
Sheikh Abdul Noor Lubowa, 81, Kayongo’s longtime friend, said the latter had gone to attend the Mawlid (annual conventional celebrations to mark the prophet Muhammad’s birthday).
“He attended several meetings in Dar es Salaam, but when his convoy was set to travel to Kilwa, a small Tanzanian island in the Indian Ocean and where the main Mawlid function was hosted, he became frail and decided to stay to seek medication,” said Sheikh Lubowa.
“The pressure went high and he was taken to the Aga Khan Hospital, but he could not make it and Allah decided to call him,” he added.

Sheikh Kayongo (C), Sheikh Hassan Kirya (R), and Hajj Muhammad Kisambira at a recent press conference

Cause of death
According to Sheikh Hassan Kiirya, the spokesperson for the office of the rival Supreme Mufti, Kayongo has been battling diabetes and hypertension for a long time.
“For some three weeks, Sheikh Kayongo was hospitalised at Case Clinic in Kampala. His health improved and was discharged,” explained Sheikh Kiirya.
“He was in Tanzania for some official duties, unfortunately he became weak and later, doctors at the Aga Khan Hospital, where he was taken, pronounced him dead at 9am,” he added.
The deceased’s entourage to Tanzania included his son Sheikh Yusuf Kayongo; Sheikh Muhammad Ssemakula, Sheikh Ali Mundu, Sheikh Muhammad Sulaiman Kamoga and a one Hajj Bwaama.

Hajj Muhammad Kisambira, the secretary general for the office of the rival Supreme Mufti, said the deceased has been a great pillar in the Uganda Muslim community, who served restlessly to educate Muslims about their religion. “We have lost a great leader, a father and convener. He has mentored very many prominent Muslims in the country and he has been the only Sheikh known by prominent sheikhs in every region of Uganda,” Hajj Kisambira told Daily Monitor.
It is sad that pool of knowledge has dried up and it is a big gap to the Muslim fraternity,” he added.
Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) spokesperson Nsereko Mutumba extended condolences to the Muslim fraternity upon Kayongo’s death.
“Sheikh Kayongo will be remembered for his tireless efforts and key contribution to the realisation of the famous 1986 Makka Agreement which ushered in the 1987 UMSC Constitution,” he added.
Kibuli-based Deputy Supreme Mufti Mahmood Kibaate said his boss has been an approachable person, who listened to everyone regardless of their status and affiliations in religion.
“Besides his humility, the Supreme Mufti has been a kind and tolerable leader. Since I started serving the Muslim community, I have had no conflicts with him and I only pray to the Lord to rest his soul in eternal peace,” Sheikh Kibaate said.

Dr Kizza Besigye, the former FDC leader, expressed shock at Kayongo’s passing. “We were together on Monday at Bulange during Ssabasajja Kabaka’s birthday celebrations. Though the Supreme Mufti looked a bit frail, he was very jovial and attentive throughout the function. That’s why the bad news has greatly shocked me,” Dr Besigye said.
Sheikh Abdul Mutwalib Musa, the Soroti District Khadi, described the deceased as a humble and principled man. “He showed integrity on matters of his faith. We remember him as a knowledgeable man, one of those who started the UMSC. It’s a sad moment for the Muslim community in the country because he has died when the wrangles in the faith have not fully been sorted out,” said Sheikh Musa.
The deceased is survived by four widows. The number of his children is still unknown.
The Tororo District Khadi, Sheik Ibrahim Yusuf Asante, said: “We treasured his leadership but the Almighty Allah has taken him before he could finish his assignments. We will take over from where he stopped.’’

Mourners comfort one of Sheikh Kayongo’s widows at their home in Maganjo, Kawempe Division

Burial plans
Sheikh Kiirya said the deceased’s body was expected to land at Entebbe International Airport by 9:30pm last night. It was then to be taken to Kiteezi, Kampala for a vigil. The requiem service will be held at Kibuli Mosque before being driven to Lwamata village, Kiboga District for burial.

Who was Sheikh Kayongo?

His father was one of the first coverts of Islam. He took up the religion, read and taught many other followers. By the time of his demise yesterday, Sheikh Zubair Kayongo, 83, was at the helm of the rival faction based at Kibuli.
If an epitaph was to be written for him it would read, “Here lies a man who worked all is life for the spread of Islam in his country and beyond. He loved his king and nation.”
Sheikh Kayongo can be described as someone who has seen it all. He witnessed the unity and disunity of the Muslims in the country and was an unflinching crusader in defence of Muslim property and rights.
Sheikh Kayongo succumbed to high blood pressure yesterday while on a working trip in Tanzania.

The sheikh, who is known for being grounded in Islamic philosophy and diplomacy, had earlier served as deputy Mufti in the early 1990s following government-brokered negotiations to end leadership wrangles.
The rivalry then pitted then Mufti Sheikh Saad Luwemba against his rival Sheikh Rajab Kakooza.
But Kayongo’s short-lived leadership then together with Sheikh Ahmed Mukasa (who was Mufti) based at Kibuli, was rejected by Luwemba, who was occupying the official Muslim headquarters at Old Kampala hill.
After Luwemba’s death, Sheikh Ramadhan Mubajje was elected Mufti in December 2000, and Sheikh Kayongo was among the first top Muslim clerics to oppose his ascendency to the coveted Muslim leadership office, saying Sheikh Mubajje was not a good leader.

During the burial of former Masaka District Khadi Sheikh Huzairu Kiruta last year, Kayongo and Mubajje met face to face, after years, the latter said he didn’t know that death could bring them together and asked whoever was willing to reconcile them to come up.
There have been several attempts to defuse tension within the top Muslim leadership spearheaded by President Museveni but such talks had not yet yielded fruit by the time Kayongo breathed his last.

The last meeting was held in December last year at State House Entebbe and despite both rival groups endorsing a draft new Muslim constitution to sort out the current leadership flaws. Mubajje has severally dismissed Kayongo’s group as illegitimate and unconstitutional.

He insists his opponents are opportunists who are using the sale of Muslim property as an excuse to bring him down.
Sheikh Kayongo has also been a Buganda Kingdom loyalist who virtually attended every meeting concerning Mengo, especially those convened at the height of a dispute between the government and Buganda over the proposed Land Amendment Bill, 2007.
In August 2004, he led special prayers at Kibuli mosque to pray for a federal system of government. He also attended last Monday’s Kabaka Ronal Mutebi’s birthday fete at Bulange-Mengo, despite feeling unwell. It was to become his last public appearance in Uganda.