Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata Batte’s candle burnt out last week December 4, sending the whole country into mourning. There was an outpouring of grief both in the traditional media and on social media platforms.

Many described him as the most fearless cleric of our time. Anybody who crossed him, tasted his wrath, from the mightiest like President Museveni, the Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga to the smallest like Eddy Kenzo or MC Mariachi.

He spared nothing in his verbal arsenal to attack anybody who he perceived as working at cross-purpose to the well- being of Islam, Muslims and Ugandans. That is why when the beloved director for Da’wa [Muslim propagation] breathed his last on December 4 at International Hospital Kampala, the outpouring of grief cut across religious and political lines, writes BAKER BATTE LULE.

Pentecostal pastor Martin Sempa was seen fitting back tears at the IHK gate as he tried to confirm the sad news. Catholic priest REV Father Deogratias Kiibi Kateregga said the country had lost one of its greatest sons.

“I’m very saddened by the death of Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata; he really spoke for us. I’m not sure we have any religious leader in Uganda who is as fearless as Muzaata has been,” Kiibi said.

He was speaking from the heart because he truly loved Muzaata. Two years ago, Kiibi told this newspaper that he enjoyed listening to Muzaata. He was not lying. He showed us recordings of Muzaata in his phone gallery.

One of the greatest preachings of Muzaata to Kiibi was one where he was calling upon Muslims to be respectful to people of other faiths. He said people of other faiths have allowed their daughters to get married to Muslim men who in turn convert them to Islam.

“Really, the least you should do is to respect them for that because it’s not easy to allow your daughter to be converted,” Muzaata said in the sermon that Kiibi treasures.

If the death of Muzaata affected priests like Father Deo, then devastation would be an understatement to describe the loss felt by his primary constituency, the Muslim community. He really spoke for them in all aspects of life.

Was it demanding for the Muslim share of the national cake or resisting what he would call a systematic profiling of Muslims by the state? Was it fighting against the illegal sale of Muslim property? He was always at hand with his oratory gift that could be as punishing as it was entertaining.

At a kwanjula in Bukoto in 2003, he memorably told the young bride to dance harder, because that was her first and last wedding, but only her husband’s first of a potential four, drawing audible gasps and chuckles. Muzaata was willing to go all the way in ensuring that the voices the frustration of his community.

At every opportunity he got, he never failed to remind the government to produce reports about Muslims who had been killed in cold blood since the ouster of former President Idi Amin Dada, the only Muslim president Uganda has ever had in its 58-year history as an independent country.

In recent times, he has demanded the release of a report in the killing of clerics like Abdul Karim Ssentamu, Mustapha Bahiga, Ibrahim Hassan Kirya and Muhammad Kiggundu, among others. His take-no-prisoners approach often rubbed the government the wrong way, and shortly before his death, he had launched a verbal campaign to end President Museveni’s 34-year rule.

“No, there will never be another Muzaata. Not only because each human being is unique and irreplaceable, but because Sheikh Muzaata was one of a kind. He was in his own league. Islam in Uganda had not seen a sheikh of that caliber – not in terms of Islamic scholarship; there have been others with PhDs – but in his boldness, conviction and outspokenness,” said Mohles Sseguruligamba, an official working with Kampala Capital City Authority.

Many who read his tribute for Muzaata nodded in approval. How could anyone have forgotten how Muzaata singlehandedly cut through the plans by then KCCA, all-powerful executive director Jennifer Ssemakula Musisi to have Muslims stop their call for prayers.

Musisi had reasoned then that it was noise pollution. As usual, Muzaata pulled out his daggers and cut right through Musisi, reminding her that she was treading uncharted waters.

“I would like to warn you Jennifer Musisi that if you’re learning to talk you will not learn with Muslims; you have failed small wars like registering boda bodas and you think you will manage the war you’re starting against Muslims,” Muzaata said.

Musisi buckled and actually forged a relationship with Muzaata that even saw his wife Kulthum Nabunya appointed into KCCA’s department of Education. That was Muzaata, he kept no grudges. And those close to him testified during his burial in Kawempe Kigoogwa last Saturday.

TEARS OF A PRINCE

“Those who were not close to him might think that he was very rough, but he wasn’t. He knew how to love unreservedly. He did not know how to keep a grudge for long,” a teary Sheikh Silliman Kasule Ndirangwa, the Supreme Mufti under whose leadership Muzaata has been serving, said.

Few people have ever seen the Supreme Mufti totally lose control of his emotions like he did during prayers to send off Muzaata’s remains, but such was the impact he had on many people. Muzaata had previously fallen out with the Katikkiro of Buganda, Charles Peter Mayiga, over the Ettoffaali fundraising drive, but they made up.

At one point he even fell out with Prince Kassim Nakibinge, the titular head of the Muslim community in Uganda, but by the time of his death, they were the best of friends. Actually, Nakibinge, who was the chief mourner at Muzaata’s funeral prayers at Kibuli mosque, failed to even say a word due to the grief.

This was unprecedented. Since 2009 when Kibuli broke ranks with the Old Kampala-based leadership of Mufti Sheikh Shaban Ramathan Mubajje over the sale of Muslim property, a number of prominent sheikhs have died including the first Supreme Mufti, Sheikh Zubairi Sowedi Kayongo, and Sheikh Anas Abdulnur Kaliisa last month, but Nakibinge had never failed to speak at their funerals.

But for Muzaata’s funeral, when he was invited to speak, he declined the invitation. He only looked on in distress with teary eyes throughout the three-hour ceremony. And that grief was echoed down the Muslim ranks to women wailing uncontrollably and men weeping openly and others fainting as the cleric’s remains were carried to his grave.

Of late, Muzaata has been very vocal against government excesses, especially against the opposition. He routinely ostracized the police for going rogue against presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu. He has also spoken glowingly about him, telling whoever cared to listen that Kyagulanyi might be having the blessing of God.

Little wonder that the singer-turned- politician suspended his campaigns to attend both the funeral prayers at Kibuli and burial at Kigoogwa in Wakiso district. But even as he openly challenged government excesses, he kept close Muslims who worked in the government.

He was the first cleric to encourage then Kampala deputy Lord Mayor Sarah Kanyike to accept the offer by Museveni to work in his government first as director in charge of gender at KCCA and then as minister of state for similar portfolio. To him, Muslim issues transcended party lines.

BACKGROUND

Muzaata was born in 1962 at Bwaise in Kawempe division to the late Haji Adam Muzaata. He went to Bilal Islamic Institute where he mainly studied Islamic theology. In the early 1980s, we went to the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia where he graduated with a degree in Islamic jurisprudence.

When he came back to Uganda, he began preaching in different mosques across the country but mainly based in Kampala. He also continued teaching Islamic theology at Bilal Islamic Institute Bwaise up to the time of his death. In 2007, he sat and passed the Uganda Advanced Certi cate of Education with his eyes set on studying law. He enrolled for the course at the Islamic University in Uganda Kibuli campus but his busy schedule did not enable him to complete it.

With friends, Muzaata founded the Muzaata And Others Hijja and Umrah offices, a travel agency that takes Muslims to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina to perform the once in a lifetime obligatory pilgrimage.

When there was a split among the Muslim community, Muzaata was appointed as the director for Da’wa [Muslim propagation] in the office of the Supreme Mufti.

He was also the chairman of all imams in the country. After the assassination of Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan Kirya in 2015, he was appointed as the spokesperson of the Kibuli Muslim faction, a title he held up to his death.

HIS DEATH

Like his life, his death is still shrouded in a mist of controversy. There is a strongly held view among many of his admirers that he was poisoned, yet others point to Covid-19. But the way his burial was handled without standard operating procedures related to the burial of somebody who has died of the coronavirus, probably rules out that possibility.

His body was handled the way normal Muslim burials are conducted. Muzaata was rushed to IHK on November 22, after days of not feeling well. He has suffered from both high blood pressure and diabetes for years, according to the family.

At IHK, he was kept in the Intensive Care Unit for all the days he was there, although the leadership of Kibuli kept reassuring the public that although he was sick, his situation was not worrying. He was buried at Kigoogwa by thousands of people amidst a heavy downpour.