Article 24 of Uganda’s Constitution prohibits acts of unlawful arrest, torture, and illegal detention of suspected criminals. However, individuals continue to report that they have been arbitrarily detained and tortured by members of various security agencies with total disregard for the law. As Walter Mwesigye reports, experts of the law say this kind of abuse dents the process of justice.
 
Images of people in custody with scars and evidence of whipping on their bodies have attracted debate. Many commenters on social media platforms express worry about the manner in which the tormentors operate.
 
 One of the recent victims of torture is the National Unity Platform’s Kasese district coordinator, Samuel Masereka.
 
 “They told me to remove all of my clothes. They caned me on every part. Even the private part, they do not spare it,” Masereka told NTV Uganda
 
 Last August, President Yoweri Museveni spoke against what he called primitive and traditional methods of getting information from suspected criminals...
 
 “Don’t beat members of the public, do not beat criminals. You are not allowed to beat anybody because it is backward, it is criminality,” Museveni told the Nation.
 
 But, hardly a year later, some security officers are seemingly reading from a different script than that of the Commander-in-chief.
 
 In 2018, while he was Chief Justice, Bart Katureebe expressed his dissatisfaction with the torture of suspects.

“If you obtain a confession as a result of torture and someone comes and says that he or she was tortured to give the confession, in court, it is not admissible. If it is the only evidence you are relying on, the court will refuse it and the man may get off even when he is guilty because you messed up,” Katureebe told the media.
 
 Human rights lawyer George Musisi says the Judiciary should take a firm stand against hearing cases where suspects are tortured and avoid being seen as an entity that covers up for illegalities.
 
 “It is time to send a message. Let us give a more purposive approach to the constitution which says that you are supposed to bring someone in court within 48 hours, you are not supposed to torture anyone and send a message that when you bring tortured suspects, we as the judiciary shall not entertain them. They should not place taking plea above the obligation not to torture,” Human Rights lawyer George Musisi says.

“The Judiciary does not condone presentation of tortured suspects in court. Even when you have presented such a suspect and the evidence reveals that it was extracted after torture, courts usually reject such evidence,” Judiciary spokesperson Jameson Karemani told NTV Uganda
 
 President Museveni has on several occasions blown his own trumpet regarding the rule of law as seen in his 2021 national address on Human rights.
 
 “Our human rights record is incomparable to any in the world. The NRM never believes in revenge,” Museveni said.
 
 Nonetheless, torture incidents appear to be rising. The Uganda Human Rights Commission reported 346 complaints of torture in 2018. This was a 13% increase from the 306 complaints that were registered in 2017. Most acts of torture were allegedly carried out by the police, the army and prison authorities.
 
 The President of the Uganda Law society Pheona Wall says justice must be seen to be done and not merely talked about.
 
 “This behaviour is compromising prosecutions. At the end of the day, we are forgetting who needs justice here. It is the victims. If a victim has suffered a crime and somebody has been held as a suspect and you torture them, and the court dismisses the case because of inadmissible evidence, then you have created an even greater injustice to the victim,” Wall says.
 
Those who have lived to tell their tale tell of harrowing experiences in the torture chambers of various security outfits. Nalufenya in Jinja was formerly a police post but was turned into a detention centre, where several people were tortured in the name of being investigated, was closed in 2018.