Muslims ask Museveni to access Jinja cemetery

The Muslim community in the town of Jinja is struggling to bury their loved ones after the Ministry of Health blocked access to a cemetery they have been using for 92 years.

In a letter dated October 17, Abubaker Maganda Timuntu, chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in Jinja town, requested President Museveni to intervene in the matter.

“The Ministry of Health has denied Muslims access to the cemetery by erecting a strong perimeter wall. This has been mainly used by Muslims, especially from West Nile, Acholi and Western Uganda, who cannot afford to travel to those areas,” the letter reads in part.

Maganda wants the government to allocate part of the 100 acres belonging to the National Forest Authority in Kamaka to Muslims as an alternative to the cemetery.

“…my humble appeal to the President is to direct the concerned people to allocate us 10 acres of NFA land in Kimaka as an alternative to the land taken by the Ministry of Health,” he said.

In a letter dated August 28, the Busoga Regional Khadi, Dr Hussein Muhammed Bowa, also called on President Museveni to intervene in the matter.

The cemetery, which was established in 1932 on plots 31-39 Nile Avenue in the southern division of Jinja town, adjacent to the Jinja Regional Referral Hospital (JRRH), is under the administration of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC).

However, the Jinja Muslim community and the Jinja hospital management have been in a dispute over the four-acre plot of land where Muslims have been burying the dead.

During a meeting in April, the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) ordered the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to vacate the disputed land because it belongs to the ULC and Jinja Hospital has been granted rights to use it.

Jinja Hospital contracted the Uganda People’s Defense Forces Engineering Brigade to build a wall around the land.

Habibu Muhmmad, a resident who lost her aunt this week, said her family was unable to access the cemetery.

”We had to use temporary stairs to jump over the body and access the burial site. “My aunt died in Mombasa, but this is the only place where we bury our relatives,” he said.

Musa Sekabira, one of the cemetery’s security guards, said they bury about five bodies a month.

Jinja hospital director Dr Alfred Yayi said UMSC was advised to formally request access to its cemetery, but no such request has been made so far.

In an October 6, 2009 case between the UMSC and the Uganda Land Commission over ownership of the same land, Justice Michael Elubu, on April 18, 2022, ruled in favor of the Commission.

The Commission then handed over the land to Jinja Hospital for its use. On 12 March, Minister of State for Lands Sam Mayanja visited the disputed land and ruled that the land belongs to Muslims because they have been using it since 1927. However, some locals protested against the decision on 21 March. .