Former Bukoto South Member of Parliament Hajji Muhammad Muyanja Mbabali is one of the many legislators who had been used to the comfortable life that MPs enjoy. However, after being ousted by his rival Abdul Kiyimba in the NRM primaries last year as he gathered 5,547 votes against Kiyimba’s 8,544 votes, Mbabaali is in trouble for defaulting on loans worth billions that he allegedly used in financing his campaigns.
According to a notice from Trust General Auctionsers and Court Bailiffs on orders of MMAKS Advocates representing undisclosed creditors, Mbabaali’s five buildings in Ntinda, Kyadondo, Masaka City are facing auction over a huge debt owed to a top city bank, whose name is withheld over customer confidentiality.
The properties include a building in Mawokota Mpigi, an apartment in Mawokota Mpigi, two apartments in Ntinda and Kyadondo and a residential house in Kisugu, Kampala. All properties are registered under, MFK Cooperation Limited, a company owned by the former legislator.
“Dully instructed by MMAKS Advocates on behalf of their client, the registered Mortgagee, we shall proceed to sale under mentioned properties, also pictured below by public auction or private treaty after expiry of 30 days from the date of this notice or thereafter unless the debtor (Mr. Muyanja Mbabali) pays all the monies owed to our client plus our fees and costs incurred in the process, “Trust General Auctionsers and Court Bailiffs said in an advertisement on Thursday July 15.
MFK Cooperation Limited did not respond to a request for comment on the looming public auction of its properties while Haji Mbabali could not be reached.
The 65 year old is one of the first politicians to join President Museveni’s Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) in 1980, which gave birth to National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Before joining politics, Mbabaali was a board member of National Medical Stores between 1998 and 2004 and a member of the NRM national executive committee. He has also served as a board member and chairperson of various organisations.
Between 2010 and 2015, he was the Lwengo NRM district chairperson. One of the biggest challenges he faced in his political career was the issue of questionable academic papers.
Shortly after the 2011 General Election, court nullified his victory in the Bukoto South Parliamentary race on grounds that he lacked the minimum academic qualifications to be an MP, which nullification was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.
During the same year, he was also nominated as the State Minister for Investments, but was rejected by the Parliamentary vetting committee after accusations that his academic papers were forged.
Mbabaali has always criticised those who say he lacks the required academic credentials to sit on the political high table. He insists that he attended Kikungwe Primary School in Masaka District where he sat his Primary Leaving Examinations in 1970 before joining Mengo Secondary School in Kampala where he attained the East African Certificate of Education (EACE) in 1974.
He later sat his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) exams at Nsambya Sharing Hall Centre in Kampala, which he passed in 2013 and later enrolled for a Diploma in Information Technology at Uganda Pentecostal University.
He says he also holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and management from Nkumba University.
In 2018, he got a Master class Certificate in Business Management and Leadership from the Commonwealth University of England. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Commonwealth University of England.
In 2014, the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate (CIID) in conjunction with the Director of Public Prosecutions cleared him of allegations that he forged his academic papers.