Muslim MPs threaten to mobilize Muslims for protest against Sheikh Mwanje’s arrest

By Francis Lubega

5^th Dec 2022

The Parliamentary Muslim Forum has threatened to mobilize the Muslim Community in a national protest against the continued arrests and abduction of Muslim clerics with the recent one being of Sheikh Yahaya Mwanje last week 

Addressing journalist at parliament, the chairperson of the forum also Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa says that it’s discriminatory for government to always raid Mosques and violently arrest sheiks without following the law and detaining them in incommunicado without producing them in courts of law.

The Muslim MPs also protest the disrespectful arrest and sanctity of Mosques by security agencies that enter the holy house with shoes.

Muslim MPs demand that Sheikh Yahaya Mwanje be released unconditionally, security agencies allow families and lawyers of the suspects to access them, or be produced in courts of law.

They further demand that also other Muslims detained in prisons be produced in courts of laws or else government and individual security personnel responsible for these acts will be sued in addition to the country wide mobilization of Muslims after seven day elapse if no response from government.

However, the Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga cautioned MPs to desist using improper methods of expressing their dissatisfaction but instead petition the army or court.

This comes as the Opposition Forum for Democratic change (FDC) during their weekly press briefing at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi blamed the government for the endless abductions of politicians and their supporters including innocent Ugandans by the security agencies using the infamous drone cars.

The FDC Deputy Spokesperson John Kikonyogo says the arrest of the former 2021 presidential candidate Joseph Kabuleta from his office last week is proof enough that Uganda is no longer safe for the political players like it was in the 1980s.