Ex-UMSC leaders want Mubajje to vacate office

More than one hundred former members of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) have asked Mufti Shaban Ramathan Mubajje to vacate office.  
Speaking to the media in Kampala yesterday, some of these members said Mr Mubajje must leave peacefully. 
They include Sheikh Abdul Azizi Husein, the former Gulu District Khadh and Sheikh Muhammad Irumba,   a former member of UMSC general assembly and former regional Khadi of Bunyoro/Tooro Muslim region. Mr Irumba said Mufti Mubajje was asked to vacate office end of 2022.

 “We already started the process of replacing Mufti Mubajje but we do not want to create another faction within UMSC. So he should hand over office to the incoming leadership and vacate the UMSC headquarters or face eviction and prosecution,” he said.
He added that Mufti Mubajje and UMSC Secretary General Mr Ramathan Mugalu were impeached on July 6, 2022 by the general assembly.

  Mr Irumba said the duo have continued to occupy the two offices, angering Muslims who are unhappy about the leadership at Old Kampala. 
 UMSC Spokesperson, Ashiraf Zziwa, yesterday told Daily monitor on telephone that Mufti Mubajje and Mr Mugalu are legally in office because their terms have not yet expired. 
 “The secretary general serves a term of seven years while the mufti retires at 75 years old according to the constitution. Also, we have organs like the joint session which are in charge of appointing and retiring UMSC officials not members calling media to say that our officials were impeached without official communication,” Mr Zziwa said.

The claims come at a time a faction at Old Kampala led by businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba filed a case against Mr Mubajje and the UMSC.  The faction filed a suit in the High Court challenging the elections of the national chairperson of UMSC and further sought to annul the victory of Prof Muhammad Lubega on December 3, 2022.
The case , however, this week took a new twist after Principal Judge Flavian Zeija recalled the file for review.

Background
Divisions at Old Kampala heightened in mid-2022, when a section of the general assembly rejected the amended UMSC Constitution.  The assembly on July 14, ratified the new constitution which gives Mufti Mubajje a new lease of life for re-election. Under the old UMSC constitution, Sheikh Mubajje, who had been in office since December 2000, was supposed to relinquish office when he clocks 70 years.