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The Court relied on the principle that a spouse may acquire a beneficial interest even where formal title is registered in the other spouse’s name. It held that the Plaintiff’s claim was not based merely on her status as the first Defendant’s wife. Rather, it arose from her express identification as a purchaser, her contribution to development, and the parties’ subsequent use of the property.

The High Court had held that a memorandum of appeal was mandatory for commencement of an appeal. However, the Court in the present case clarified that this requirement had to be considered alongside the statutory requirement concerning the decree. The Court observed that the memorandum of appeal was necessary, but that the memorandum could not be considered in isolation from the requirement under Section 79(1) of the Civil Procedure Act concerning the decree or o

The court identified three factors favouring the applicant (the filing of a notice and memorandum of appeal, and the promptness of the application following service of the notice to show cause) against two factors weighing against her (i) the execution related solely to a taxed monetary sum which she had not appealed, removing any risk that the appeal itself would be rendered nugatory; and (ii) she had not adduced evidence that the respondents lacked the means to refund the t

The theme of the summit is "Roots Before Reach." The idea is simple. Build strong legal foundations first. Then take on new demands like legal tech, cross-border practice, and career growth.

The Uganda Law Society Secretariat launched Techfest 2026 on Thursday, 20 August 2026. This is the second edition of the rebranded Annual Law Conference. The launch followed an earlier virtual session on legal enrollment hurdles and anti-corruption frameworks. The physical event at the ULS Secretariat featured live music from the Banzura Band and remarks from ULS council members and legal tech leaders. This year's theme is "Digital Democracy: Advancing Access to Justice, Inno

Where an unlawful eviction occurs, the tenant may seek appropriate relief from court. In Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v Bbaaka Property Consultants (U) Ltd, Justice Teko Isaac Bonny recognised that an order compelling an applicant to vacate his home and forcefully evicting him without notice of termination of his tenancy may threaten the applicant’s right to protection from unlawful eviction under Section 45.

Following Aida Atiku v Centenary Rural Development Bank, the court treated the protection of banking credentials as the customer’s responsibility. Where a customer allows another person to obtain the information needed to access an account, that can count heavily against the customer.

The Court held that where a kibanja is held under the reversionary interest of the Kabaka of Buganda, the consent required for a transaction involving the kibanja must be obtained from the landowner through the Buganda Land Board, and not merely from the local Omutongole wa Kabaka.

The law touches your life every day. Your job, your business, your rights. Technology is changing how all of it works. This September, you get a front row seat to that change. The Uganda Law Society under the Radical New Bar is hosting its 2nd Annual Legal Tech Festival under the theme The theme this year is The Radical New Bar: Pioneering AI-Empowered Justice, Innovation, Ethics, Inclusion, and Sustainable Transformation. Here is why you should be part of it. It comes for yo

The Court found that the Plaintiff's authentication credentials, her phone and national ID, were compromised when she lost them on 6 February 2023. It found inconsistencies in her account of when she reported the loss to police and to her network providers, and noted evidence that she remained in contact with the person holding her phone after the date she claimed to have blocked her line. The Court held that whoever held her phone and ID was able to complete Flexipay registr

The Court also relied on section 92, which recognises the production to a company of sufficient evidence of probate or letters of administration as evidence of the grant. The Court observed that these statutory provisions establish an important distinction between ownership of the shares as an asset of the estate and membership of the company.

On the nature of the wrong, the Court held that where a public authority continues to withhold or delay execution of a valid appointment, this constitutes an ongoing administrative omission rather than a single completed act, so that limitation does not run until the authority's conduct explicitly indicates that no appointment will be honoured. It was noted, however, that deferred deployment is permissible only as a temporary and reasonable administrative expedient, and canno

The Court held that registration of title does not automatically extinguish every cause of action a third party may later assert over the same land, and that a plaint is only liable to rejection under Order 7 rule 11(d) of the Civil Procedure Rules where it discloses, on its own face, that the suit is time-barred. The Court drew a sharp distinction between “matrimonial property”, as defined in Julius Rwabinumi v Hope Bahimbisomwe (property acquired during the marriage, or agr

Cutting off the workaround does not fix the underlying shortage it emerged to solve. It restores the shortage and removes the income that came with addressing it. The Commission has the regulatory tools to design a proportionate framework. Its own director has publicly acknowledged that the market these operators serve is real and that the formal sector has failed to reach it. Therefore, the question is not whether UCC has the legal authority to enforce. It plainly does. The

The Court held that the criminal prosecution is being used as a tactical lever by the 3rd to 5th respondents as a means of unleashing the immense stress and cost of a criminal case to wear down an opponent, in order to force an advantage in a property ownership dispute, bypass the land registry, and intimidate the applicant. Criminal courts should not be converted into land registries or tribunals to determine the authenticity of rival land titles and competing historical roo

By capping paper based instrument while explicitly exempting electronic platforms. Bank of Uganda is using its regulatory power under the NPS Act Cap 59 to reshape how payment systems operate. Rather than freezing deposits, the Central Bank is redefining what counts as valid performance of banks debt obligation. It rules that digital transfers are legally equivalent to – and preferred over physical currency.

The Court addressed the practice of moonlighting, holding two jobs at once, as a distinct question from restraint of trade. Citing Bowers and Honeyball's Textbook on Labour Law, the Court noted that moonlighting is common and, in some circumstances, lawful, particularly where a contract carries no requirement of exclusivity and no harm to the primary employer is shown, as in Nova Plastics v Froggart, where an odd-job man was found not to be in breach for working for his emplo

Applying the three-part test in Asege Winnie v. Opportunity Bank (U) Ltd & Anor, the Court found the Plaintiff identifiable, the Defendants’ conduct deliberate, and the publication commercially motivated, sustaining the claim for misappropriation and passing off of personality. The Court further found that the Plaintiff’s name, profession, and stated opinion constituted personal data, unlawfully processed and republished to an audience beyond his own followers without his c

Justice Ssemogerere observed that Mr. Ntare had no independent interest in the criminal revision proceedings and that his actions were undertaken solely for financial gain and to obstruct justice. The Court further relied on Halsbury's Laws of England, defining criminal contempt as: "Criminal Contempt, consisting of words or acts which impede or interfere with the administration of justice, or which create a substantial risk that the course of justice will be seriously impede

The Court defined "retrenchment" as "the termination of employees for economic reasons, such as cost-cutting, restructuring, or downsizing, rather than for disciplinary actions," citing the ILO. It further noted that retrenchment is "not done as a punishment or disciplinary action, but it is intended to reduce surplus Labour or to address financial position of the business or company." The Court cited Justice BM Katureebe JSC (as he then was) in Samuel Lubega, Lawrence Kamule

Applying Section 9(1) of the Contracts Act, Cap. 284, and citing William Kasozi v. DFCU Bank Ltd, the Court reiterated that once a contract is validly executed, it creates reciprocal rights and obligations, and a signatory is bound by its terms absent fraud or misrepresentation. Breach of contract was defined, per Meridiana Africa Airlines (U) Ltd v. Avmax Spares (EA) Ltd, as a failure, without lawful excuse, to perform any promise forming all or part of a binding contract, i

Dear Friends and Partners, Parliament has passed the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026. Presidential assent is now a matter of days. The Uganda Law Society — the Bar of this Republic — cannot watch this happen in silence. We are writing because Article 1 of our Constitution puts the matter beyond doubt: all power belongs to the people of Uganda. And yet a Bill bearing the name sovereignty now threatens the very people in whom that sovereignty rests — journalists, civil

Employers who unlawfully dismiss employees are generally liable to relieve or reimburse the employee for unsecured loans that were expected to be paid from the employee's monthly salary. Secured loans (e.g., mortgages) are distinct legal contracts and are not automatically cancelled. However, courts will not permit employers to switch the interest rate on such loans from a preferential staff rate to a higher commercial rate following an unfair dismissal, as this would consti

The Court characterised the removal of an employee's work tools as "a deliberately oppressive labour practice," treating it as strong evidence of breach of the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence, drawing on its own precedent in Granada Hotels Uganda Limited v Tayssiir Zereli and on the Supreme Court of Canada's reasoning in Potter v New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission, where cutting off an employee's work tools without disciplinary justification was found to

The Court held that the Claimant, recruited from Kaberamaido and dismissed after more than fifteen years of service, was entitled to repatriation under Section 39 of the Employment Act, but declined to enhance the CBA's fixed sum of UGX 400,000, holding that it could not rewrite the parties' bargain once they had agreed the CBA governed. Because the dismissal was found unjustified, the statutory bar on severance pay for employees summarily dismissed for gross misconduct did n

The Court found that the Plaintiff had complied with section 252(1) of the Succession Act by filing the present suit for removal of the caveat well within six months after the caveat had been lodged. Relying on the statutory scheme governing succession proceedings, the Court held that failure by a caveator to institute proceedings within the prescribed period results in the caveat lapsing by operation of law. The Court further endorsed the reasoning in Kawuki David & Others

The Court held that the Respondent appeared to have fallen victim to an online fraud perpetrated by an individual posing as a Japanese motor vehicle dealer. The Court emphasised that banks are not insurers against their customers' commercial decisions or fraudulent transactions initiated by customers themselves. The Court stated: "The appellant cannot be held liable for the fraud into which the respondent was induced." It further held that once the Bank had processed the cust

Relying on section 154 of the Children Act and the Constitutional Court decision in Kyamanywa v Uganda, the Court held that corporal punishment constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment prohibited under Ugandan law. The Court concluded: "That conduct amounted to corporal punishment, which is prohibited by the laws of Uganda, and, therefore, illegal."

The Court held that bail conditions should never be so onerous as to render the constitutional right illusory. It emphasised that the primary purpose of bail conditions is to secure attendance at trial rather than punish an accused person before conviction. The Court stated; "Mandatory bail granted in name but rendered practically unattainable is no bail at all." The Court further explained that the amount of bond and the standing of sureties must be proportionate to the appl

The Court found that any variation must be driven by objective market indicators, such as changes in the Bank of Uganda central bank rate, and must be communicated to the customer in writing beforehand. It held that; "Unilateral adjustments made surreptitiously or restrictively, without explicit contractual triggers or customer notification, constitute a material breach of the banker-customer contract."

More fundamentally, it is a modest plea for constitutional morality, not in the abstract, but as a practical obligation resting upon every actor in the administration of justice. Judicial officers, prosecutors, and all public officials entrusted with enforcing the law must look beyond the mere existence of an offence on the statute book and ask a more fundamental constitutional question; does the Constitution permit this offence to be enforced? The fact that Parliament enacte

The Court observed that the creditors' resolution triggered the operation of s. 154(1)(a) of the Insolvency Act. By operation of law, the shareholders were deemed to have passed a special resolution for liquidation under s. 92(2). The Court further noted that the lapse of the Administration Deed provided an independent basis for the same deeming consequence under ss. 152 and 154. The effect of section 154 is significant. Parliament has expressly provided a statutory mechanism

The court found that a valid and enforceable supply contract existed between the parties. Applying ss. 10(2) and 10(5) of the Contracts Act, the court held that the formal writing requirement for contracts exceeding UGX 500,000 does not render non-compliant contracts void; they are merely unenforceable by action. Importantly, the requirement may be satisfied by piecing together related commercial documents, purchase orders, invoices, delivery notes, email chains and reconcili

The court had ordered that the proceedings in Administration Cause No. 14 of 2024 be remanded to the Office of the Administrator General, Kabale. The purpose of this remand was for the Administrator General to determine whether the applicant was a "widow" within the meaning of the Succession Act, prior to the grant being reinstated. The Administrator General was then to report findings to the Registrar of the High Court, and the matter would subsequently be cause-listed for h

The PDPO rejected the complainant's argument that statutory exemptions relating to criminal investigations and legal proceedings automatically entitled him to obtain third-party personal data. The Office held that those provisions merely create circumstances where processing may lawfully occur; they do not confer a freestanding right to compel disclosure from NIRA. Accordingly, a private litigant cannot bypass the specific statutory requirements governing access to informatio

Applying the doctrine of legitimate expectation as articulated in Halsbury’s Laws of England and Paponette v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, the Court held that the Applicant had a legitimate expectation that her credits from King’s College London had been accepted and transferred. That expectation arose from the express terms of the 2022 admission letter, her placement into Semester II of the programme, and UCU’s consistent conduct over a four-year period, including

On restoration, the Court explained that a struck-off company may apply for administrative restoration by the Registrar only within twelve months of being struck off; any person aggrieved by the striking off may apply to the Registrar within five years; and beyond the twelve-month window, restoration can only be achieved through a court order. The restoration process requires a written application stating grounds, a thirty-day Gazette notice of intention to reinstate, and, wh

The Court found that the 1st Plaintiff had lawfully exercised its statutory power of sale under Section 19(e) of the Mortgage Act (Cap 239) following the 1st Defendant's default. She reaffirmed that upon registration of a transfer following a mortgagee's sale, the purchaser acquires full ownership free of all liability on the mortgage (Section 27(4)), and acquires good title except in cases of fraud or misrepresentation (Section 28(1)).

Facts The Director of Public Prosecutions, on behalf of the Republic of Uganda, sought leave to appeal out of time against a decision by His Worship Muchelule Dismas, a Magistrate at Kisoro Chief Magistrates Court, delivered on August 5, 2025. The original case involved charges of assault occasioning bodily harm against the respondents, Col. Kayita Deo and Pte Nyeko Christopher, under Section 236 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 128. The trial court had issued a ruling of no-case t

The Court reaffirmed the equitable principle of "first in time", holding that where competing interests arise over the same property, priority is generally accorded to the earlier purchaser whose interest was acquired first. The Court clarified that a purchaser who loses the property due to an earlier competing interest is entitled to seek compensation from the vendor who wrongfully conducted the subsequent sale.

The learned Judge clarified that Section 86(a) of the Employment Act permits severance pay only in cases of unfair dismissal and not merely unlawful termination. The Court reaffirmed its earlier decision in Nganda Joweria v Allen V.R. Stanley Secondary School, where it held that severance pay is unavailable in cases of unlawful termination. Accordingly, the Court found that the Labour Officer's award of severance pay lacked legal foundation and set it aside.

The court clarified that while an application for review under Section 82 of the Civil Procedure Act is permissible in certain instances, it is not a license to re-hear the merits of the suit, but rather is limited to correcting errors on the face of the record. Revision under Section 83 of the Civil Procedure Act addresses material irregularity or illegality in the exercise of jurisdiction.

Justice Ssemogerere observed that pursuing an application while disregarding express statutory provisions that confer a more favourable entitlement to bail is prejudicial to the applicant's rights. In reaching this conclusion, the learned Judge relied on Valentino Baburuhe v Uganda, Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 2 of 2025, [2025] UGHC 271 (13 May 2025). The Court further emphasized that where an applicant is legally entitled to mandatory bail, it is improper to seek

The learned Judge found that after obtaining letters of administration, the plaintiff failed to distribute the estate to rightful beneficiaries. Instead, he transferred the land into his own names, subdivided it, sold portions, and mortgaged portions for loans. The Court described the plaintiff's conduct as "grossly irregular" and inconsistent with the fiduciary obligations of an administrator.

On foreclosure, the court reaffirmed, that the statutory notices under the Mortgage Act (Sections 18, 19, 25 and 27) are mandatory. Since the defendant had issued only the forty-five working days' default notice and had not adduced evidence of all required notices, foreclosure was declined at this stage. On interest, the court awarded simple interest at 10% per annum from the date of judgment, following the approach

The court found that the bank breached this duty by relying on a stale valuation report containing manifest errors, delaying the sale for months after the initial advertisement, and conducting an opaque auction process with no documentary proof of competing bids. The court noted that the property was sold at a gross undervalue of UGX 135,000,000/=, despite the plaintiffs having identified a buyer willing to pay UGX 235,000,000/=.

The Court found that the Union was not acting as an ordinary private club dealing with a purely private contractual relationship but was exercising disciplinary authority over a national athlete within an organized national sports framework. In reaching its decision, the Court relied on Chief Constable of North Wales Police v Evans and the Judicature (Judicial Review) (Amendment) Rules, 2019, which extend judicial review to bodies exercising quasi-judicial functions or perfor

In the absence of explicit conditional purchase or consignment clauses, a distributor cannot withhold payment from a manufacturer merely because the contemplated end-use, such as a government tender, subsequently falls through.

The learned judge found that the TAT, upon identifying a shortfall of approximately UGX 294 million between the vehicle's value and the 30% threshold, was not entitled to summarily dismiss a UGX 4.3 billion dispute on that basis. Her Ladyship held that a taxpayer who had surrendered a vehicle worth over UGX 1 billion had demonstrated sufficient intent to comply and should have been given a fixed deadline to pay the balance. She found that the interest of justice, as enshrined

In his article, “Limitations of Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act (Cap 97): Narrow Scope of Sensitive Data and Lack of Explicit Protections for Biometrics, Genetics, and Location Data,” Ssali explores how these gaps expose individuals to growing privacy risks in an era increasingly shaped by facial recognition technology, DNA profiling, and continuous geolocation tracking.