Several religious groups, including Muslim, Catholic, and Anglican faiths, have experienced and still continue to experience a surge of conflicts, the majority of which revolve around property. The Muslim community and the Anglican Church are the most severely impacted. Citing the recent case of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC), whose property (the Gadhafi Mosque) auction has been halted by the Court of Appeal in Kampala due to irregularities, and Church House, where the Church of Uganda (COU) is still battling to pay Equity Bank a debt of approximately Ugx 15 billion.
The Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) property on Old Kampala Hill (Gaddafi National Mosque) was previously on the list of assets to be auctioned. The crisis stems from a land transaction between UMSC and Justus Kyabahwa, which encountered complications. UMSC sold a two-square-mile tract of land in Ssembabule to Kyabahwa for around Ugx 3.584 billion, intending to transfer ownership within 150 days. However, the land had an existing 15-year lease, leading to the failure to fulfil the transfer or refund the money, resulting in the accumulation of the Ugx 19-billion debt.
As a result, the UMSC, under the Uganda Muslim Lawyers Association (UMLAS), dragged Mufti Sheikh Shaban Ramadhan Mubajje and Justus Kyabahwa, a businessman, to court for fraudulent sale of Muslim property, arguing that the agreement was done through duplicitous means, collusion, and deceit or deception, which violates Sharia law because it involved the sale of land and payment of interest.
In some other incident, another piece of land opposite Victoria Mall is claimed to have been leased out to seven different people, with each depositing money into the UMSC account, and people were issued lease agreements of five to 15 years under the guardianship of a gentleman identified as Figo; however, the people that the land is leased to never get to develop it under the claim that Figo is not the rightful guardian. Eventually, all this led to the suspension of Sheikh Mubajje, who was replaced by Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Ssemambo, who was sworn in as Uganda’s interim mufti on Sunday, December 17, 2023.
However, in a statement issued on December 22, 2023, the Judiciary dismissed claims that it had authorised Sheikh Ssemambo to act as the interim mufti, saying that the court has not authorised Sheikh Ssemambo to act as mufti, hence asking the concerned people to remain calm and act responsibly as they await the decision of the court in Jinja.
“This is to clarify that Lady Justice Alexandra Nkonge Rugadya halted the execution and implementation of the resolutions of the General Assembly made on 16th and 17th December 2023, that resulted in the appointment of Sheikh Ssemambo as Acting Mufti pending the determination of the application by the same Judge who made the orders under the law for review of Court Orders,” the statement read in part.
Nevertheless, on December 24, 2023, in his response to Dr. Lubega Kasambira, Sheikh Ssemambo declined to leave the office of Deputy Mufti, saying that he (Kasambira) had no right to suspend him from office and that his acts were illegal and constituted contempt of court order since he was sacked as UMSC’s Chairperson at a General Assembly held on December 17, 2023, in which the same assembly appointed Ssemambo as acting Mufti and Hassan Gule as acting chairperson of the council. Sheikh Ssemambo added that any further attempt to continue acting as the national chairman of the UMSC is contrary to the law and the constitution of the UMSC and also undermines the supremacy of the general assembly.
In Uganda, land grabbing has become such a widespread issue that it is affecting many families and people that it has not only stopped at an individual level but has also extended to the religious community, with the Church of Uganda being affected and falling victim to the same.
However, stretching to the noteworthy roots of the Islamic issues rotating around property and funds, we realise that resource mismanagement in the Muslim community did not just start yesterday. For instance; in 1974, President Idi Amin declared his intentions to terminate the whole UMSC Secretariat and threatened to appoint Catholics, Protestants, or even Orthodox to manage the affairs of the council because they weren’t corrupt and the Muslim officials by then had failed to fulfil their obligations.
“Christians and Orthodox have a clean heart and offer services to God; they will replace Muslims,” President Amin said.
In 1978, due to the corruption tendencies involved in the UMSC, the construction of the national mosque failed as a result of the embezzlement of funds. An amount totaling around Ugx 77 million meant for the project was withdrawn from the account, and only Ugx 3 million was left. It was not until 2006 that the mosque (currently on the list of assets to be auctioned) was completed with the aid of the late Colonel Maumar Gaddafi.
When it comes to COU resources, the church has lost a chunk of land to encroachers. For instance, in Namugongo, part of the land in Biira on Mityana Road was sold, among others. Due to people encroaching on the Namugongo Martyrs Anglican Site, different dioceses came up and started fencing off the remaining land to protect it against the encroachers.
Last year, as pilgrims gathered to commemorate Uganda Martyrs at the Namugongo Anglican Martyrs Site on June 3, 2023, Reverend Esau Bbosa Kimanje, the Vicar of Namugongo Parish and Principal of Namugongo Seminary, raised a complaint about the church land being unlawfully occupied by other people. He appealed to the government through Archbishop Dr. Samuel Stephen Kazimba Mugalu to assist them in recovering the grabbed land, quoting that yearly, pilgrims increase in number, yet the place keeps getting smaller.
“Your Grace, we have a very big chunk of land, but people who are sited behind the church are all on church land, and we are squeezed; the church we are putting up is also squeezed because of this challenge. Our neighbours behind us cannot go away, so we are appealing to you, Archbishop; maybe you can appeal to the government to do something. And also, I am seeing every time we are increasing, and this time I am overwhelmed, so we need that land,” Rev. Bbosa said.
On the same note, Minister Ruth Nankabirwa, who is in charge of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and was the Chief Guest, confirmed in response that she had received the complaint about the grabbed church land and how she had contacted the Minister of Finance, promising with the help of other ministers to handle their concern. She further promised to handle the land issue of the bonfire occupants as required by the constitution of Uganda and raise the site to international levels as it will contribute to religious tourism.
“I heard from His Grace when he mentioned the need for the government of Uganda to honour her appeal and her obligation to compensate the Church of Uganda for the land that has been utilised. I have written letters to the Minister of Finance, and as per the mandate given to me, I will continue to push it with the support of Honourable Rebecca Kadaga and my other colleagues in the cabinet. We will do the needful,” she said.
However, in an interview with Rev. Jasper Tumuhimbise, the Director of Church Holdings, he said that 20 acres of Namugongo land were given to the church by the Kisosonkole family, but people kept on encroaching on it slowly by slowly.
When asked about the steps COU is taking against the encroachers, the Reverend said that any squatter will be required to obtain a certificate of occupancy so they can become legal occupants where they’ll be mandated to pay rent (obusulu), while those who want leases will be asked to apply through the church structures for leases.
“Any squatter will have to get what we call a certificate of occupancy so that they can legally settle there when they are paying what we call busuru. Then, for those who want leases, we’re also encouraging them to apply through church structures for leases,” Rev. Tumuhimbise said.
Rev. Tumuhimbise added that, for those who will shun, the church will use all possible legal means for them to face the law.
“If in case someone refuses, now this applies to Namugongo, Ntawo, Nakanyonyi, church land in Masindi, we use all possible means to make them face the law by getting eviction orders and others,” he added.
He, however, said that they are still establishing a system of registering all church land, and it is being marked. The Reverend further said that all church property still belongs to the church, giving an example of Kibiri land in Busabala-Makindye Sabagabo, Church in Ndeeba that was demolished saying that Christians still attend Sunday services, and land in Mukono, among others.
On the issue of the Anglican church land being encroached on more than the Catholic, the Reverend revealed that generally in Uganda, people are found encroaching on church, Islamic, school, health centres, and public land simply because people always look for soft targets where the owner is “public” since it’s not individually owned but managed by a number of people, and by the time it’s realised, the land is already settled on.
He added that the church land is also stolen by Christians themselves, saying that those meant to protect it instead end up stealing it. He stressed that whoever bought church land without an agreement with the seal of the registered Trustees of the Church of Uganda by law, they bought air.
“For church land, it doesn’t matter who sold you; if you were not sold by the registered legal Trustees of the Church of Uganda, you will have bought what we call ‘empewo’ (air); you will have bought a fake title and a fake agreement. So the best thing to do, irrespective of whether a Reverend sold you, a Head of Laity, or even a Bishop, is to come and see how to put right what went wrong. Otherwise, 50 years later, even if it’s a big building, it will still remain our land, or 20 years later, we shall still evict them,” Rev. Tumuhimbise noted.
Based on the preceding reports and the profound discussion held with Reverend Tumuhimbise, it’s clear that a chunk of church land has ended up in the wrong hands of the encroachers, and this could have resulted from weak laws by the church itself, the absence of a centralised system of managing church resources, a lack of bureaucracy, or even corruption tendencies by some of the church authorities.
Digging deep into the various religious denominations, it’s imperative to note that it’s not only the Muslim community that is affected, but it cuts across. So, none of the religious groups has been left untouched; however, each has been affected in one way or another. Much as the leaders in the Catholic Church have preserved the church property, some Fathers have gone ahead to produce children, while others have supported same-sex marriages, which is against the Catholic philosophies and practices.
When following up on the trends of conflicts that have occurred in Uganda on a religious basis, most of them revolve around monetary grounds. For instance, today’s leadership is no longer a calling but instead has been turned into employment and is monetary-based, yet biblically, the priests were not supposed to earn a salary but instead depend on tithe.
Land in Uganda has become so thought-provoking and diverse that some people have lost their lives, whereas others have remained homeless, all resulting from land conflicts. The question remains whether the issue of land conflicts will ever come to an end in Uganda.
