| GGABA
HUNDREDS of Muslims yesterday converged at the Ggaba Islamic Foundation Centre Mosque and held special prayers to ask Allah to help Brig. Henry Tumukunde out of his predicaments.
Worshippers under the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) located at the Ggaba trading centre in the suburbs of Kampala, called upon President Yoweri Museveni to release Tumukunde from jail.
They said the intelligence chief who is accused by the government of spreading harmful propaganda made a big contribution towards the end of victimisation of Muslims in acts of terrorism.
?We call upon Allah Subuhanalahu Watahallah (Almighty God) to help him out of prison. He made a great contribution to the nation and specifically the Muslims who were being branded rebels every now and then by authorities,? Sheikh Abdul Salaamu Mbogo, who led the Juma prayers yesterday, said.
?He (Tumukunde) needs his freedom, just like any free citizen. He needs to be together with his family. If
our
good President Museveni remembers any good thing Brig. Tumukunde did for this country, he should base on that and release him.?
Mbogo said the recent problems that have happened in about two or three months cannot be used against a man who has made a great contribution to the country. ?Those problems should be sorted out when the man is out of prison,? he said.
Tumukunde, currently under military detention at the Officers? Mess at Kololo in Kampala, was arrested on May 27 following statements he made while on CBS and Radio One FM stations. He has been charged before the General Court Martial and remanded until August 12, pending his bail application.
He has since petitioned the Constitutional Court claiming that President Museveni ordered him to resign his parliamentary seat as Army representative, and the court is to hear his case on June 23.
The Army Council on Thursday elected Brig. Andrew Gutti, the chief of training in UPDF, to fill his
post.
Worshippers said Tumukunde?s greatest contribution to their ?brothers and sisters in faith? was during the late 1990s and early 2000, when he was the chief of military intelligence. Those were the days of the Allied Democratic Forces rebels (ADF) and Uganda National Freedom Army/Movement (UNFA) that used to operate in western Uganda and Southern Sudan when ?Muslims used to disappear every now and then,? they said.
?Authorities doubted us Muslims at the time. They used to arrest any one with a long beard and short trousers. But it was Tumukunde who stood for us and started screening people to sort out the right from the wrong. His contribution was such a great relief for us?.
Muslims concerned
?Now when we hear the man is in and out of the Court Martial and prisons, we get concerned. He is not a man for the prison, no matter what he did, and we hope Allah will listen to our voices,? Mbogo said.
Muslims also remembered Tumukunde for the seminars he used to organise for them in Kampala to re-assure them that government was not against them. Some of the key people that were remembered having been affected at the time and got the help of Tumukunde include Maj. Mohammad Kiggundu, Mr Abdul Karim Ssentamu, Mr Mohammad Kibaate, and Mr Abdul Karim Ssekimpi, head of Jamat Dawa Sarafia, a Muslim sect based at Market Street in Kampala, and many others.
Mbogo hoped that many other Muslims in various parts of the country would remember Brig. Tumukunde?s contribution to their freedom and also organise special prayers for his freedom. Maj. Kiggundu, who was chairman of the now defunct UNFA, joined UPDF with his fighters. | 
