Muslims in Kyazanga town council in Lwengo district have rejected the new leadership of Kyazanga Central Mosque.
They accuse Sheikh Juma Mawejje Kabanda, the West Buganda Muslim Regional Kadhi and Sheikh Ismail Kibuule, the Lwengo District Kadhi of conniving to appoint a committee to manage and monitor all activities and properties of the Mosque without their knowledge and involvement.
It all started when Sheikh Kabanda and Kibuule went to the mosque to present the new committee but met resistance from a rival group led by Sadab Abudmuminu.
It took the intervention of Peter Twala, the Lwengo District Police Commander, to save the visitors who left the mosque premises immediately.
Kyazanga Central Mosque has been the centre of controversy and clashes between rival factions one allied to Uganda Muslim Supreme Council-UMSC, the main Muslim administration in the country and the Kibuli faction.
Herman Ssentongo, the Lwengo Resident District Commissioner met the rival groups last month and they agreed to elect the leadership of the mosque.
However, Abudmuminu, says that Kabanda has never visited the Kyazanga mosque to mediate the longstanding leadership disputes or to engage them over the said election of the leadership committee.
He says that they were surprised to learn that he visited the Mosque on Tuesday only to present the names of the new leadership, which didn’t go down well with them.
He says that they want to have a leadership committee that has been elected by all parties and not the one that was just selected by Kabanda and his team. Kabanda promised to reach back for a comment about the incident.
In November 2016, police were forced to take over the mosque following violent clashes between rival Muslim groups. One group was led by Sheikh Sulayman Kubo, the Amir of Lwengo district and another by Sheikh Yasin Kakomo.
Kubo’s group had earlier ousted Sheikh Kakomo in 2015 for alleged mismanagement of Shillings 50 million meant for Zakat and accruing from the sale of Muslim land next to Kyazanga Masjid Saraf Centre.
He was also accused of recruiting Muslim youths into the ranks of the rebelAllied Democratic Forces-ADF. Sheikh Kakomo denied the allegations and mobilised a force that raided the mosque and reinstate him, which sparked bloody clashes.
