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A Ugandan imam who mistakenly married a man has been suspended two weeks after marriage

According to the report, Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba, found out the truth when his bride was caught stealing a TV from a neighbor and was searched by police.

The thief later admitted pretending to be a woman so he could marry the imam and steal his money, local media in Kayunga reported.

Mutumba, 27, was suspended from his duties as a cleric at the Kyampisi Masjid Noor mosque while investigation is underway.

He claimed he hadn’t been intimate with his ‘wife’ since the wedding two weeks before because she told him she was menstruating.

Mutumba who married in traditional Islamic ceremony in December, said he thought he married a woman called Swabullah Nabukeera.

Her true identity was exposed when she was arrested for the theft of a television set and clothes from his next door neighbors.

A female police officer carried out a body search on the suspect, thinking she was a woman, but found out she was actually a man.

Mutumba is said to be ‘too devastated’ to talk about the incident and needs counselling.

Friends and colleagues said they were also fooled by the imposter, who usually wore a hijab.

Amisi Kibunga, who also works at the mosque, said: ‘He had a sweet soft voice and walked like a woman.’

Kibunga also revealed that Mutumba had complained four days after the wedding that his new bride refused ‘to undress while they slept.’

The suspect later told police his real name was Richard Tumushabe and he admitted he married Mutumba in a bid to steal the cleric’s money.

Local Muslim official Sheikh Abdul Noor Kakande said the ‘unfortunate’ incident was being investigated.

Mosque officials said they suspended the imam despite confirming he had entered the marriage thinking Nabukeera was a woman.

The mosque’s head imam, Sheikh Isa Busuulwa, said the suspension was necessary to ‘preserve the integrity of their faith.’

He said Mutumba had worked at the mosque for four years and was one of its three imams.

The head cleric added that though he had attended Mutumba’s marriage reception, the mosque had not been involved in the wedding celebrations.

Many Ugandans took to Social media to mock the imam as a suspected homosexual who is not being truthful.

Frank Mugisha, who runs the group Sexual Minorities Uganda, told The Associated Press the case proved “how homophobic the country is.”