Government apologises for announcing Idd day celebrations

Government has apologized to the Muslim community for announcing Eid el-Fitri celebrations for Wednesday 5 before sighting of the moon.

Usually, Iddi is announced only after citing the moon and is done by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Public Service Permanent Secretary, Catherine Birakwate announced that celebrations for Idd would be held on Wednesday June 5 and that the day will be observed as a public holiday.

The announcement attracted backlash from the Muslim community on whether government had powers to announce the day without sighting of the moon prompting government to backtrack on its earlier communication.

In a new communication, the Public Service Permanent Secretary apologized for the howler saying it was done in error and without any authority.

“The Ministry of Public Service hereby regrets the inconvenience that has arisen through the unauthorized and pre-mature release of the announcement of Eid- el Fitri day on social media before the official public announcement by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council(UMSC),”Birakwate said in her apology.

She said they would now only announce the day after a pronouncement by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to avid similar howlers in future.

“Ignore the message circulating on social media until the official and authoritative pronouncement of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council has been released as in the normal procedure.”

Earlier, Sheikh Yahaya Ibrahim Kakungulu, the Director of Sharia at the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council had warned that Idd would be celebrated on Tuesday if the moon is sighted on the evening of Monday June 3.

“Failure to sight the moon  on June 3, it will mean that automatically, Eid- al Fitri will be celebrated on Wednesday June 5, 2019,”Sheikh Kakungulu said in a statement.