How Mufti Mubaje saved his right hand man Mugalu from impeachment

It appears Ramadhan Mugalu, the embattled general secretary of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC), has nine lives.

A couple of days after the national chairperson of UMSC showed him the exit over alleged abuse of office, the Joint Session of the same body reinstated him with the helping hand of Mufti Shaban Mubaje.

The Joint Session is the second top most organ of UMSC and comprises the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the UMSC and the College of Sheikhs.

Yesterday, it unanimously resolved to rescind the earlier decision that was issued to Mugalu in their meeting chaired by the UMSC national chairperson Abdul Nadduli.

NEC supervises the UMSC management and reports to the General Assembly, the top most organ of the council.

This decision was communicated in a joint communique signed by Nadduli on behalf of the National Executive Committee and Mubaje, on behalf of the College of Sheikhs.

"In accordance with the UMSC constitution article 11(e), 11(5), the members of the Joint Session held today 8th July 2022, have heard the petition and thereafter gave Haj Mugalu a fair hearing to which he was able to explain and clear all grounds leveled against him,” read part of the communication seen by the Nile Post.

Mugalu's reinstatement comes two days after he was suspended by NEC on a number of allegations when he appeared before the committee on July 2, 2022.

Before the committee resolved to suspend Mugalu from his position as the UMSC secretary general, he had appeared in the High Court in Masaka in a case where the UMSC was accused of irregularly selling off land belonging to Muslims in Sembabule district.

This land and other Muslim properties were placed under the leadership of Mugalu in which he is accused of failing to account for, according to our high place sources which are well acquainted with the matter.

According to the UMSC constitution, the secretary general is the accounting officer and he is in charge of everything and finances that concerns Muslim at the institution.

"When the NEC sat in the meeting, it discovered very many irregularities that were committed by Ramadhan Mugalu. Like the sale of Sembabule land that you have been hearing about. I have copies of those cheques that were written in his name from the businessman that bought that land. His sins were unforgivable and the committee decided to impeach him,” a source that sits in one of the UMSC top organs told the Nile Post.

Mugalu is accused of forgery, indiscipline and mishandling of the registration of Muslim properties in Uganda where it is alleged that most of these properties are registered in his name instead of UMSC.

For instance, another source that sits at the College of Sheikhs told the Nile Post that Mugalu registered the Old Kampala based Call Islamic University in his name instead of UMSC, something which angered most of the members of the committee.

"During Covid-19 they sold the land in Sembabule at Shs 3.5 billion without authorization from anywhere. They told the Muslims that they bought some apartments within Kampala and along Entebbe road that generate shs 13 million a month. They have never brought the titles of these properties to the council. All these things are in his name," said the source.

It is alleged that Mugalu and his accomplices signed an agreement with a certain company owned by Sam Kutesa, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs to build dams on the land in Sembabule for cattle to drink for 15 years. It has been 9 years ever since the deal was sealed.

NEC accused Mugalu of bribery and forging signatures, minutes to pave his way to engage in various dirty deals which has tainted the image of the institution and the entire Muslim community.

Mubaje’s intervention 

Another insider source told The Nile Post that Mugalu after realising that things are getting not any better,  rushed to Mubaje and asked him to save him by all means.

"Remember we did everything together and you know it. I am not going to leave the council alone. If you don’t devise any means of saving me, I am going to divulge all the secrets. I won’t just leave like that,” the sources quoted Mugalu begging Mubaje to save him during a secret meeting.

Upon realising that the dismissal of Mugalu could cause him problems, Mubaje reportedly got scared and devised means of saving his right hand man.

Whatever Mubaje did behind the scenes, no one can tell bit it did the magic for Mugalu because the rules of the Joint Session state that if someone is impeached and there is a complaint he or she has to wait for seven working days.

This means that Mugalu was supposed to bring his formal complaint on the 13 of this month.

"But now only after two days he has been reinstated. This is illegal. UMSC has been hijacked by mafias right from the mufti because what they are doing is completely against the law. The General Assembly is going to sit on the 11th ,12th and 13th of this month, we shall update you," said the source.

Mugalu can now get a breather but for how long?