Leadership wrangles rock Supkem

Supkem Chairperson Hassan Ole Naado. [Denis Kibuchi, Standard]

The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) is embroiled in leadership wrangles as a section of members say the Chairperson Hassan ole Naado is not legally in office since the last elections were held in 2017.

A section of the leadership said elections were to be held in 2020 but they were postponed due to Covid-19.

Supkem Director General Abdulatif Shaban argued that a letter from the Registrar of Societies showing that Naado was the bonafide National Chairman did not show the process that was followed to give him the position.

"Since Ambassador Yusuf Nzibo was elected as Supkem National Chairman in 2017 we have not conducted another election ever since, we are yet to understand the process that Hassan ole Naado used to become the National Chairman since we have not conducted an election," said Shaban.

He said that Naado contested for the secretary general position in 2017 and lost to Ambassador Mohammed Mahat before being co-opted into Supkem leadership serving as deputy chairman and was appointed acting chairman in November 2019 after Nzibo was relieved of his duties.

Shaban noted that the Supkem constitution requires an election to be held to pick new officials and a letter from the Registrar of Societies showing that Naado was the national chairman had surprised members.

He said that they have made a formal complaint to the Registrar of Societies so that they can be told whether the leadership of Supkem was legally in office bearing in mind that an election is supposed to be conducted every three years.

"We want due process to be followed in having the leadership of Supkem being subjected to an election every three years, the last election we had was in 2017, Naado has been serving in an acting capacity as chairman, we have no problem if he is re-elected since someone can be re-elected as many times as possible," said Shaban.

Naado defended himself against allegations of being illegally in office saying that he was given the mandate by the necessary organs to be Supkem National Chairman and he was being fought by some individuals after he closed avenues of corruption in the organisation.

He told those who are interested in leadership to wait for their turn saying that some people were sponsoring bloggers to malign his name but he will not respond to them.

Naado further said that he has been in leadership positions over the years and did not understand why some people wanted him out now, especially at a time when Muslim pilgrims are headed for Hajj in Mecca Saudi Arabia and vowed to continue performing his duties.

"The members of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims have confidence in my leadership and I will continue performing the roles bestowed on me to the best of my abilities, I will not accept to be distracted by sideshows," he said.