By Angel Lubowa
COURT
Final swords were drawn in the court battle , Monday 16, 2025 as Mufti Sheikh Ramadhan Mubajje’s lawyers tried to defend his elections after petitioners asked court to quash his appointment, declare him ineligible and orders UMSC to put up new procedures before a befitting Mufti is elected.
Dr Mubajje’s legal team led by Moses Kabega was coming to dilute the petitioners submissions but their lawyers were on high guard to re emphasize their strong case.
Midway as Kabega made a re- battle, he fell short when he told court that the petitioners were non Sunni Muslims members who prescribed to Kibuli faction or Gangu and therefore had no business in UMSC affairs a statement he lived to regret.
The reaction of court was catastrophic forcing him to seek court protection but judge Bernard Namanya guided him to just proceed.
For starters ,the petitioners in the historical case a section of Sunni Muslims want High court to end Dr Sheikh Ramadhan Mubajje tenure as Mufti at UMSC .
Through their lawyers , Farouk Kizito and Kamulegeya Rashid , the petitioners say the whole process of coming up with Mubajje as Mufti was illegal, irregular and a mistake since it did not comply with the UMSC amended constitution.
They sighted articles 7(6), 9(6) and 17(10) among others where the joint session must make rules and regulations to regulate the proceedier subject to first approval by the UMSC general assembly which never was.
Similarly the executive committee had to make standing orders which were supposed to be followed but the electors down looked all this let alone working in secrecy as they kept Mubajje’s re_ appointment a secret thus denying the over 9 million Sunni Muslims a chance to know and probably field other qualifying candidates to contest for the Mufti vacant which had become vacant.
” These articles stipulates what the required legal process would have been done but the accused chose to act out side the law , taking influenced wrong unwanted advise from the UMSC legal personnel , Dr Adam Kibwanga.
My Lord it was intentional that the rightful process be ignored to smuggle a person, Sheikh Mubajje who was constitutionally eligible making the whole process illegal and irregular” lawyer Kamulegeya told court.
” The contention is not about electing Mufti in camera but the irregularities there in. The members of the Majiris Usalama are not magicians to know who wants and who don’t want to contest for Mufti office and keeping out other would be contenders intentionally was wrong. We ask court to declare the entire process unfair, irrational and illegal,to declare that Mubajje was iligible and should leave office, seeking an injunction to bar any swearing in of wrongly elected people into offices and the suspension of Magiris Usalama and a responsible organ be put in place following prescribed regulations”, the legal team begged court in summary.
The Kabega team therefore came poised to dismantle those grounds and in their efforts they asked court to disregard them saying the old constitution which emphasized the 70 year was amended and petitioners therefore lived in the past.
They accused petitioners of not seeking other remedial avenues before seeking a judicial review, their not being known members of any UMSC organ like the joint session, general assembly or Majiris Usalama and that the process followed law and duty since they identified, selected and approved the new Mufti.
Kabega’s team went further to say that religiously leadership is elected in camera like the House of Bishops of the Anglican church or the Pope of the Catholic church and wondered why petitioners wanted the Mufti to be elected on display.
However the petitioners lawyers encountered such argument saying their contentions were not under the Canon law or Sharia since they concerned management of Sunni Muslims affairs under the UMSC as company not the spirituality of the entity.
They initially faulted the process of identifying, selecting and approving noting that the selectors ought to do so from the all Sunni Muslims, had to call selector with a known agenda, endured that the amended constitution was respected and even wondered why Sheikh Mubajje a member of the electing body didn’t sign his attendance meaning he knew he couldn’t be the elector,the identifier and the approver in that regard. Judgement will be at notice.
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