Two Ugandans run to court to challenge law on preventive arrest

 

 

By:Admin

Kampala

Two Ugandans have dragged government to the Constitutional Court challenging the law on preventive arrest as always used by the Police Force

Under Section 24 of the Police Act, a police officer may, without a court order and without a warrant, arrest a person if he or she has reasonable cause to suspect that the person has committed or is about to commit an offence.

In a petition before the Constitutional Court, Anne Tendo and Alex Martin Musiime say that whereas section 24(1) of the Police Act allows a police officer to arrest and detain any person as a preventive action, the same provision doesn’t have a specific duration for the detention of a person arrested and detained under the same provision.

“Accordingly, section 24(2) of the Police Act is amenable to abuse through arbitrary detention for an unspecified and extended period of time without trial in violation of Articles 23(1) and (4) and 28(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda,” the two Ugandan say.

The duo says that whereas sections 24,26 and 27 of the Criminal Procedure Code Act empower any police officer to interpose or arrest any person without a warrant, the same laws don’t provide a specific duration for the arrest and detention effected under the same law.