Police Block Muslim ‘National Prayers’ as MP Ssebagala, UMSC Feud

Police Block Muslim ‘National Prayers’ as MP Ssebagala, UMSC Feud

By Francis Otucu 

 National Jumaa Special Prayers that had been orgainsed by Kawempe North Member of Parliament Latif Ssebagala, who also doubles as the Imam at the august house, have been blocked by police. The said prayer was to be held today at the Kololo Independence grounds.

The development comes in the wake of a series of omissions allegedly made by Ssebagala, among them failure to write to the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) for clearance.

According to details obtained by The Second Opinion, Ssebagala instead addressed the letter to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defense, and copied in the two rival Muslim factions of Old Kampala and Kibuli, sparking off discomfort at the Muslim headquarters.

“The letter I saw was addressed to PS, Ministry of Defense. The head of Muslim Community in Uganda is the Mufti. Issues of Muslim you can’t write to Defense. Secondly, he copied UMSC-Old Kampala and UMSC-Kibuli,” UMSC spokesperson, Hajj Nsereko Mutumba said in an exclusive interview.

Further Nsereko Mutumba charged that the role of the Imam of Parliament is confined at Parliament and he cannot convene a national prayer.  He added that UMSC held its national prayer last year and that there are no plans of holding another of that nature.

“We aren’t part of that arrangement because we organized the national prayer last year and we presented our demands to government. We aren’t going to hold one this year. We are Muslim leaders, do you just copy us in the letter? We are clarifying that we aren’t involved in the said national prayer. They (Ssebagala and Nsereko can do what they want. I asked the Mufti if he was invited to be part of the said prayer and he denied knowledge of it.”

Further prompted over what Ssebagala could have meant by ‘We concerned members of the Muslim Community in Uganda’, Nsereko said: “Maybe him (Ssebagala) and MP Nsereko who are the author of the letter.”

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga confirmed blocking the scheduled prayers.

“This is to inform the general public and in particular, members of the Muslim Community who were intending to participate in the National Jumaa Special Prayers at Kololo Independence grounds today Friday January 18, 2019 that the prayers will not take place..,” Enanga’s letter reads in part.

The letter further states: “…it was established that the religious gathering that was being organized by the Parliamentary Imam was not cleared by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC), the Supreme Muslim body legally mandated to oversee all activities of the Islamic Faith in Uganda.”

By press time, Ssebagala’s known phone number was off.