EXPOSED: How Basajjabalaba is Haunted by Past History
Hassan Basajjabalaba (C) at the Anti-Corruption court in 2013
It’s a public secret that by close of this week, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council will have a substantive Chairman to administratively run the show at the Old Kampala based main Mosque.
Among the nominated candidates for the chairmanship include Owek.Al-hajj Prof.Muhamad Lubega Kisambira (1st Deputy Premier of Busoga Kingdom also Chairman Muslim Professionals at Old Kampala), Hajj Hassan Basajjabalaba, Sheikh Kassim Kamugisha and Hajj Twaha Gwaivu.
However, of the four contestants Hajj Basajjabalaba is encountering a lot of scrutiny from all corners of the Muslim community over his past record when he held forte in the same office.
During his last tenure as Chairman, Basajjabalaba was impeached for grabbing Muslim properties with billions of shillings and mortgaging Muslim Council properties.
This was a gross violation of Islamic principles and ideals thereby tarnishing the recuperating image of UMSC.
It should be noted that Hajj Basajjabalaba’s name is synonymous with ‘unclear’ deals, mafiarism, property grabbing, land grabbing among others.
No wonder he was sometime back sent to the university of understanding over the same.
It is actually questionable how he even got nominated by the independent electoral commission having been previously impeached.
It’s also presumed that Basajjabalaba carefully compromised the electoral commission with a hefty sum of money that choked them at a time when they should have done the right thing.
The chairman of the IEC, Umar Wesswe has reportedly been seen with Basajjabalaba and his henchman Adam Semugabi and some officials of UMSC management almost every evening at one of the leafy hotels within the city centre.
Some members within the independent electoral commission itself actually think their bosses have been too compromised to deliver a free and fair election.
Years back , businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba was charged with fraud and tax evasion at the Anti-Corruption court, although his lawyers petitioned the Constitutional court challenging his trial.
In January, 2013, Basajjabalaba was arrested and spent some days in Luzira prison. He was arraigned in the Anti-Corruption court on charges of evading taxes worth Shs 20bn. Basajjabalaba, together with his younger brother Muzamiru [Basajjabalaba], were charged with three counts of conspiracy to defeat tax law, forgery of a judicial document and uttering a false document.
Prosecution alleged that Basajjabalaba, also chairman of Haba Group (U) Limited, conspired with his younger brother Muzamiru, to evade taxes amounting to Shs 20.1bn arising from a government compensation payment to Haba. They allegedly committed the offence between 2010 and 2011 in Kampala.
Haba was compensated Shs 142bn after government cancelled its purchase of Nakasero, Shauriyako and St Balikuddembe markets as well as the Constitution square. Basajjabalaba is also accused of forging a consent judgment on October 6, 2010.
The judgment was purportedly entered into by Haba, as a plaintiff, and the Attorney General as the defendant, agreeing that the latter’s payments to the former of Shs 142bn would not be subject to any levies, whereas the award was subject to tax laws.
Prosecution further alleged that in 2011, in the High court case of Haba versus the Commissioner General of Uganda Revenue Authority, Basajjabalaba fraudulently uttered the said consent judgment.
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