Shs 62 Million Realised as Ummah House Project Resurrects

More than Shs 62 million was raised last weekend as Muslims under the Jamuiyyat Tabliq Da-awah As-Salafiya (JDS)re-launched a drive for the construction of the Ummah House.

The Nakasero Mosque-based Muslim group announced a massive countrywide campaign to raise funds for the Ummah House project in 2015, but suspended it after some of its leaders including the Amir-ul-Ummah, Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga, were arrested and jailed in Luzira.

At the time, the group had raised about Shs 500 million which it recently deposited on a prime plot of land at Katwe near Kampala.

 “We intend to go around the country mobilizing Muslims to contribute to this project because it is for the Ugandan Muslim. We want Muslims to have a building in Kampala that they can be proud of just like the Catholics have Mapeera House and the Anglicans have Church House,” Sheikh Siraj Kifampa Nsambu, the JDS secretary-general told Parliamentarians on September 16.

The fundraising drive was re-launched on Sunday, September 18, at Nakasero mosque in Kampala, and attracted the attendance of the Kampala minister, Hajjat Minsa Kabanda and the Secretary General of the National Unity Platform (NUP), David Lewis Rubongoya among other political leaders.

The minister made a cash contribution of Shs 2 million and pledged another Shs 2 million as Rubongoya delivered a cash package of Shs 2 million from NUP. Makindye division Mayor, Ali Nganda Mulyanyama gave Shs 1 million.

Speaking, Kabanda urged Muslims to support government programmes. She informed them that the government had received a grant from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to support the implementation of the Islamic banking model.

On his part, Sheikh Kamoga said that the group’s development plan is focused on three areas namely; establishing a Tabliq Muslim savings and credit cooperative society (SACCO), a place for preparing bodies of dead Muslims for burial plus a Hajj and Zakat bureau.

The proposed Ummah House project is estimated to cost more than Shs 10 billion. Once completed, it will host the group’s administrative headquarters, a library, health and recreational facilities.