Police suspects leadership wrangles in cleric's murder

By Pascal Kwesiga

THE Police are investigating the killing of one of the Tabliq sect leaders in Uganda, Sheikh Mustafa Bahiga, with special focus on the leadership, family and business related wrangles as being the possible cause of his murder.

According to police, Bahiga was killed upon arriving at Bwebajja Mosque on Kampala-Entebbe Highway by two assailants on a motorcycle at 8:00pm on Sunday.

The police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said Bahiga was still behind the steering wheel of his car, when he was shot six times in the head, stomach and limb before the assailants fled.  

The deceased, according to Enanga, was speaking on his cellphone when he was shot, about four meters away from the Mosque.

Three children of the deceased who travelled with him to the Mosque, according to police, were entering the mosque when the assassin opened fire on their father, causing people around the Mosque to flee in panic.  

"The family arrived at the Mosque while he (Bahiga) was speaking on phone and they (daughters) moved out of the car, leaving him behind the steering wheel. It appears the person he was talking to on the phone was part of his killers," Enanga told journalists at the police headquarters in Kampala on Monday.

The Police, however, he said doesn't know what would have happened if Bahiga had not been delayed in the car by caller and entered the mosque with his daughters.

This comes after the killing of the national leader of the Shia Muslim sect, Daktoor Abdul Muwaya, in Mayuge District on Christmas Day.

Police spokesman Fred Enaga during the weekly press briefing at the Uganda Police Headquarters in Naguru, said investigations would focus on the leadership, family and business related wrangles surrounding the deceased. Photo by Tony Rujuta.

The assailants who murdered him at around 9:00pm on Thursday rode to his home on a motorcycle. Enanga said Muwaya's killing could have been politically motivated.

In April 2012, unidentified assassins, also riding a motorcycle, shot dead Sheikh Abdu Karim Sentamu, formerly a leader of sheikhs in the Dawat — an Islamic sect. 

He was gunned down at about 9:30pm on William Street in Kampala as he left Masjid Noor Mosque located on the same street. Police said the assailants had been stalking him. 

In June 2012, another Muslim cleric, Abubaker Kiweewa, was shot dead at his Prime Supermarket in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb.

In August 2012, Sheikh Yunusu Abubakari was gunned down by unknown assailants as he returned home after leading prayers at Masjid Umaru Mosque that belongs to Salaf Muslim sect in Bugiri town council. 

The killers who had apparently been trailing the cleric with a gun concealed in a bag, struck at about 8:30pm.

In all the incidents, the assailants escaped on motorcycles after the killings. They have never been brought to book. The police said the use of motorcycles by assailants is not new. 

"That modus operandi is not new; they (motorcycles) have been used many times because the assailants think they can easily escape after committing crimes," Enanga said.

The police, he explained, will screen the calls to Bahiga's phone with a view of establishing the person he was communicating with before he was killed.