Entebbe Mosque Claimants Withdraw Petition

The locus visit to the Masgid Taqua Mosque in Entebbe on Monday was aborted after claimants withdrew a petition for an application blocking access to the mosque. 

Last month, the Inspector General of Police Abbas Byakagaba ordered the opening of the Mosque. The mosque was closed early this month after two feuding leaderships claimed ownership.

The directive reportedly followed a meeting involving Byakagaba, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) head Sheikh Shaban Mubaje and some UMSC Muslim leaders of Entebbe Muslim District.  The closure had disrupted the normal flow of religious and other work at the Mosque as the parties feuded over possession and control.

The Mosque was originally constructed by Indian Muslims but was handed to local Muslims after former President Idi Amin expelled the Indians from Uganda in 1972.

A group headed by Umar Bashir Matovu constituted an entity, Masjid Taqua Company Limited in 2012 and secured a title for the Mosque and surrounding land acknowledged as Muslim property.

However, their leadership was challenged by a group led by Matovu Edirisa Phigo and others, calling the former illegitimate.

On Monday, the court had been scheduled to visit the mosque located at 2:00 pm.  However, only lawyers for one of the warring sides showed up, explaining that the registrar had cancelled the locus visit following the withdrawal of an application in which directors of Masjid Taqua Company Limited had sought restraining orders against their adversaries accessing the mosque.

Lawyers Michael Akampurira and Juma Mukasa representing the defendants explained how Haji Sadiq Mukasa, had withdrawn their application rendering the visit useless.

Akampurira explained that Sadiq Mukasa, whose company claims to be the registered owner of the land the mosque sits on had by the application intended to assert possession. 

The parties have been wrangling over the control and leadership of the mosque for some time, at times the conflict gets nasty with physical fights.

Mukasa, told URN last week that the formation of a company and subsequent registration of the mosque land in the company names was informed by attempts by the other group (aligned to Uganda Muslim Supreme Council – UMSC), to sell off Muslim land.

However Juma Mukasa, at Monday’s meeting following the abortive locus visit, said if there was anybody who wanted to misappropriate Muslim property, it was those registering it in personal names and companies, which they would resist because the Mosque was for all Muslims.

Akampurira explained that at the hearing of the main case, they would seek cancellation of the tile held by Masjid Taqua Company Limited because it was secured irregularly.  He said the current squabbles are an expression of abuse of the settlement and consent reached by the parties in an earlier case in 2019 before the Entebbe Chief Magistrate.

Under the said settlement, the warring sides were to each appoint three members and another number from neutral Muslims and a UMSC representative to constitute a united leadership but this had been abused by the plaintiffs’ group, for which Juma Mukasa said the plaintiffs would be made to pay heavily.

Juma Mukasa accused the plaintiffs of committing forgery when they listed dead people as members of their company, while other people were listed and alleged to have signed whereas not.  Mukasa said there were also cases of one name appearing more than once on the list of the eighty-one members of the company.

Present at the meeting, were area MP Michael Kakeembo Mbwatekamwa, Entebbe Division A LC III chairperson Scolastica Najjemba Baguma and Mariam Nalwooga, the Entebbe NRM chairperson.

The three said they loved Islam and were ready to contribute to the redevelopment of the Mosque but were dismayed by the endless squabbles among Muslims.

Later on, a team from Kampala comprising among others the (UMSC aligned) district Khadi Sheikh Sheikh Farook Ssendijja and Matovu Ediriisa Phigo came and explained the Haij Sadiq Mukasa – Juma Matovu Bashir group had been at the UMSC headquarters in Kampala where they had apologized to the leadership and expressed willingness to withdraw all cases in court.

Mukasa Phigo said the group should not be let off the hook and had to pay costs.  He alleged the Juma Matovu Bashir group had already sold off a plot of the land stake.  He said the plot occupied by the crafts centre was the one in question.

Sheikh Ssendijja called for unity and reconciliation but explained the ring leaders were beyond forgiveness.   “Those who were misled should be welcomed and we move together but there are others who should never be forgiven,” he said.