Sheikh Abdallah Lubega: A humble bicycle riding cleric moves to the hereafter
By Ahmed Idriss
For six decades, Sheikh Abdallah Lubega was a familiar sight in the leafy Kampala suburb of Buziga, steadily pedalling his bicycle from one home to another as he carried the message of Islam, often to the residences of the area’s affluent Muslim families — earning him the nickname “Seeka wa bagagga” (the Sheikh for the wealthy). Yet he was far more than a cleric serving the rich; he became part of Buziga’s living memory.
As news of his passing at Kiruddu Hospital on May 14, quietly spread through the same hills he had cycled across for years, residents found themselves reflecting on the life of a man whose journey was defined by faith, simplicity and quiet influence.
Born in 1939 in Bisanje, Kimanya-Kabonera Division in Masaka City, Sheikh Abdallah Lubega was the son of the late Swaibu Lubega and Jemeo Namatovu. Unlike many of his generation who passed through the formal English-style education system, Lubega pursued Islamic religious studies under renowned Muslim scholars, among them the late Sheikh Islam Ali Kulumba.
Kulumba’s close ties to the Buganda Kingdom opened doors for the young Lubega, who, shortly before the abolition of kingdoms in 1966, became part of the entourage of Edward Muteesa II during a visit to Bunyoro.
Lubega settled in Buziga in 1960, beginning a lifelong relationship with the hill that would later become inseparable from his identity. Seven years later, he married his first wife, Jalia Nabukenya, with whom he had 14 children. In 1972, he married Aisha Nakayiza, and together they were blessed with seven children. A year later, he married Mastullah Nakakawa, who bore him three children.
On his bicycle, Lubega traversed the neighbourhoods of Buziga, Bunga, Munyonyo, Lukuli and Nanganda, preaching Islam and welcoming new converts into the faith. Over the years, he documented nearly 1,100 converts to Islam and oversaw the construction of 18 mosques.
For much of his life, the bicycle became synonymous with Sheikh Lubega himself. Even in old age, he saw little reason to abandon the simple mode of transport that had carried him through decades of Da’wah work.
“Since 1953, I have been riding bicycles… I have been offered motorcycles but I have turned them down,” he once remarked.
That humility endeared him to people from all walks of life, including influential national figures such as Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, Prince Kassim Nakibinge, Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, the late Justice Prof. George Kanyeihamba and the late former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president, Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
Through his lifelong service to Islam, Sheikh Lubega remained above the leadership wrangles that for decades shaped divisions within Uganda’s Muslim community. He maintained cordial relations with both rival Muslim administrations at Old Kampala and Kibuli, choosing unity, brotherhood and service to the faith over factional loyalties.
