At least 1,500 Ugandans will attend this year’s Hajj, records at the Uganda Bureau of Hajj Affairs (UBHA) show.
The 1,500 were registered under 54 different Hajj and Umrah firms, and are expected to start jetting out of the country on June 1. This figure accounts for 30 per cent of Uganda’s Hajj quota.
“The number of Ugandan pilgrims has increased from 1,300 last year to 1,500. Each of them paid between Shs 19 million ($5000) and Shs 38 million ($10000) for the trip,” said Sheikh Zakaria Kiwalyanga, UBHA secretary-general.
This year’s Hajj rites are expected to begin on June 14 and last up to June 19.
“All pilgrims from Uganda will spend 21 days in the holy land to make the most of the spiritual journey, performing different religious rites,” Kiwalyanga said.
Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) registered 95 pilgrims, of whom 40 are women, according to Sheikh Ali Juma Shiwuyu, UMSC secretary for Hajj and Umrah.
They were on Thursday symbolically seen off the Mufti, Sheikh Shaban Ramathan Mubaje, at a function held at the National Mosque at Old Kampala.
The Mufti urged the pilgrims to utilise their stay in Makkah in devotion and prayer rather than indulgence in worldly affairs.
Last year’s Hajj was the first full-capacity annual pilgrimage in the post Covid-19 pandemic period. Saudi Arabia hosted a total of 1,845,045 pilgrims, including 1,660,915 foreign pilgrims and 184,130 domestic pilgrims.
