PART II—GENERAL PROVISIONS.

Arrest, escape and retaking.

10. Arrest without warrant.

Any police officer may, without an order from a magistrate and without a warrant, arrest—

(a) any person whom he or she suspects upon reasonable grounds of having committed a cognisable offence, an offence under any of the provisions of Chapter XVI of the Penal Code Act or any offence for which under any law provision is made for arrest without warrant;

(b) any person who commits a breach of the peace in his or her presence;

(c) any person who obstructs a police officer while in the execution of his or her duty, or who has escaped or attempts to escape from lawful custody;

(d) any person whom he or she suspects upon reasonable grounds of being a deserter from the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces;

(e) any person whom he or she finds in any highway, yard or other place during the night and whom he or she suspects upon reasonable grounds of having committed or being about to commit a felony;

(f) any person whom he or she suspects upon reasonable grounds of having been concerned in any act committed at any place out of Uganda which, if committed in Uganda, would have been punishable as an offence, and for which he or she is, under the provisions of any written law, liable to be apprehended and detained in Uganda;

(g) any person having in his or her possession without lawful excuse, the burden of proving which excuse shall lie on that person, any implement of housebreaking;

(h) any person for whom he or she has reasonable cause to believe a warrant of arrest has been issued;

(i) any person in whose possession anything is found which may reasonably be suspected to be stolen property or who may reasonably be suspected of having committed an offence with reference to that thing.


11. Arrest of vagabonds, habitual robbers, etc.

Any officer in charge of a police station may in like manner arrest or cause to be arrested—

(a) any person found taking precautions to conceal his or her presence within the limits of that station under circumstances which afford reason to believe that he or she is taking the precautions with a view to committing a cognisable offence;

(b) any person within the limits of that station who has no ostensible means of subsistence or who cannot give a satisfactory account of himself or herself;

(c) any person who is by repute an habitual robber, housebreaker or thief, or an habitual receiver of stolen property knowing it to be stolen, or who by repute habitually commits extortion or in order to commit extortion habitually puts or attempts to put persons in fear of injury.


12. Procedure when police officer deputes subordinate to arrest without warrant.

When any officer in charge of a police station requires any officer subordinate to him or her to arrest without a warrant (otherwise than in his or her presence) any person who may lawfully be arrested without a warrant, he or she shall deliver to the officer required to make the arrest an order in writing specifying the person to be arrested and the offence or other cause for which the arrest is to be made.

PART II—GENERAL PROVISIONS.

Arrest, escape and retaking.

17. Detention of persons arrested without warrant.

(1) When any person has been taken into custody without a warrant for an offence other than murder, treason or rape, the officer in charge of the police station to which the person is brought may in any case and shall, if it does not appear practicable to bring the person before an appropriate magistrate’s court within twenty-four hours after he or she was so taken into custody, inquire into the case, and, unless the offence appears to the officer to be of a serious nature, release the person on his or her executing a bond, with or without sureties, for a reasonable amount to appear before a magistrate’s court at a time and place to be named in the bond; but where any person is retained in custody, he or she shall be brought before a magistrate’s court as soon as practicable.

(2) An officer in charge of a police station may discharge a person arrested on suspicion on any charge when, after due police inquiry, insufficient evidence is, in his or her opinion, disclosed on which to proceed with a charge.

(3) Where, on a person’s being taken into custody in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (1) it appears to the police officer in charge of the police station to which the person is brought that the inquiry into the case cannot be completed forthwith, he or she may release that person on his or her executing a bond, with or without sureties, for a reasonable amount to appear at such a police station and at such a time as is named in the bond unless he or she previously receives a notice in writing from the officer in charge of that police station that his or her attendance is not required; and any such bond may be enforced as if it were conditioned for the appearance of that person before the magistrate’s court having jurisdiction in the area in which the police station named in the bond is situated.