PART II—GENERAL PROVISIONS.

Arrest, escape and retaking.

2. Arrest.

(1) In making an arrest the police officer or other person making it shall actually touch or confine the body of the person to be arrested, unless there be a submission to the custody by word or action.

(2) If a person forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him or her, or attempts to evade the arrest, the police officer or other person making the arrest may use all means necessary to effect the arrest.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to justify the use of greater force than was reasonable in the particular circumstances in which it was employed or was necessary for the apprehension of the offender.


3. Search of place entered by person sought to be arrested.

(1) If any person acting under a warrant of arrest, or any police officer having authority to arrest, has reason to believe that the person to be arrested has entered into or is within any place, the person residing in or being in charge of that place shall, on demand of the person acting under the warrant or such police officer, allow him or her free ingress to the place and afford all reasonable facilities for a search in it.

(2) If ingress to such place cannot be obtained under subsection (1), it shall be lawful in any case for a person acting under a warrant, and in any case in which a warrant may issue, but cannot be obtained without affording the person to be arrested an opportunity to escape, for a police officer, to enter the place and search in it, and in order to effect an entrance into the place, to break open any outer or inner door or window of any house or place, whether that of the person to be arrested or of any other person, if after notification of his or her authority and purpose, and demand of admittance duly made, he or she cannot otherwise obtain admittance.


4. Power to break out for purposes of liberation.

Any police officer or other person authorised to make an arrest may break out of any house or place in order to liberate himself or herself or any other person who, having lawfully entered for the purpose of making an arrest, is detained there.


5. No unnecessary restraint.

The person arrested shall not be subjected to more restraint than is necessary to prevent his or her escape.


6. Search of person arrested.

(1) Whenever a person is arrested—

(a) by a police officer under a warrant which does not provide for the taking of bail, or under a warrant which provides for the taking of bail but the person arrested cannot furnish bail; or
(b) without warrant, or by a private person under a warrant, and the person arrested cannot legally be admitted to bail or is unable to furnish bail,

the police officer making the arrest or, when the arrest is made by a private person, the police officer to whom he or she makes over the person arrested, may search that person and place in safe custody all articles, other than necessary wearing apparel, found upon him or her.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), a police officer may search any person who has been arrested and may take possession of anything found on the person which might reasonably be used as evidence in any criminal proceedings.


7. Power of police officer to detain and search vehicles and persons.

(1) Any police officer may stop, search or detain any vessel, boat, aircraft or vehicle in or upon which there is reason to suspect that anything stolen or unlawfully obtained may be found and also any person who may be reasonably suspected of having in his or her possession or conveying in any manner anything stolen or unlawfully obtained, and may seize any such thing.

(2) Any police officer searching any building, vessel, carriage, box, receptacle or place under section 70 of the Magistrates Courts Act who finds in that building, vessel, carriage, box, receptacle or place anything which he or she reasonably suspects to have been stolen or unlawfully obtained may seize that thing, notwithstanding that it is not anything for which he or she is searching by virtue of the warrant.


8. Mode of searching women.

Whenever it is necessary to cause a woman to be searched, the search shall be made by another woman with strict regard to decency.


9. Power to seize offensive weapons.

A police officer or other person making any arrest may take from the person arrested any offensive weapons which he or she has about his or her person, and shall deliver all weapons so taken to the court or officer before which or whom the police officer or person making the arrest is required by law to produce the person arrested.


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.


13. Refusal to give name and residence.

(1) When any person who in the presence of a police officer has committed or has been accused of committing a noncognisable offence refuses on the demand of the officer to give his or her name and residence, or gives a name or residence which the officer has reason to believe to be false, he or she may be arrested by the officer in order that his or her name or residence may be ascertained.

(2) When the true name and residence of that person have been ascertained, he or she shall be released on his or her executing a bond, with or without sureties, to appear before a magistrate if so required; except that if that person is not resident in Uganda, the bond shall be secured by a surety or sureties resident in Uganda.

(3) If the true name and residence of the person are not ascertained within twenty-four hours from the time of arrest, or if he or she fails to execute the bond or, if so required, to furnish sufficient sureties, he or she shall forthwith be brought before the nearest magistrate having jurisdiction.


14. Disposal of persons arrested.

A police officer making an arrest without a warrant shall, without unnecessary delay and subject to the provisions of this Code as to bail, take or send the person arrested before a magistrate having jurisdiction in the case or before an officer in charge of a police station.


15. Arrest by private person.

(1) Any private person may arrest any person who in his or her view commits a cognisable offence, or whom he or she reasonably suspects of having committed a felony.

(2) Persons found committing any offence involving injury to property may be arrested without a warrant by the owner of the property or his or her servants or persons authorised by him or her.


16. Disposal of person arrested by private person.

(1) Any private person who arrests any person without a warrant shall without unnecessary delay make over the person so arrested to a police officer, or in the absence of a police officer shall take the person to the nearest police station.

(2) If there is reason to believe that the person arrested comes under section 10 of this Code, a police officer shall rearrest the person.

(3) If there is reason to believe that the person arrested has committed a noncognisable offence, and he or she refuses on the demand of a police officer to give his or her name and residence, or gives a name or residence which the officer has reason to believe to be false, he or she shall be dealt with under section 13.

(4) If there is no sufficient reason to believe that he or she has committed any offence, he or she shall be released at once.


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.


18. Police to report arrests.

Officers in charge of police stations shall report to the nearest magistrate within twenty-four hours the cases of all persons arrested without warrant within the limits of their respective stations, whether the persons have been admitted to bail or otherwise.


19. Offence committed in magistrate’s presence.

When any offence is committed in the presence of a magistrate within the local limits of his or her jurisdiction, he or she may arrest or order any person to arrest the offender, and may upon the arrest, subject to the provisions of this Code as to bail, commit the offender to custody.


20. Arrest by magistrate.

Any magistrate may at any time arrest or direct the arrest in his or her presence, within the local limits of his or her jurisdiction, of any person for whose arrest he or she is competent at the time and in the circumstances to issue a warrant.


21. Recapture of person escaping.

If a person in lawful custody escapes or is rescued, the person from whose custody he or she escapes or is rescued may immediately pursue and arrest him or her in any place in Uganda.


22. Sections 3 and 4 to apply to arrests under section 21.

Sections 3 and 4 shall apply to arrests under section 21, although the person making any such arrest is not acting under a warrant and is not a police officer having authority to arrest.


23. Assistance to magistrate or police officer.

Every person is bound to assist a magistrate or police officer reasonably demanding his or her aid—

(a) in the taking or preventing the escape of any other person whom that magistrate or police officer is authorised to arrest;

(b) in the prevention or suppression of a breach of the peace, or in the prevention of any injury attempted to be committed to any railway, canal, telegraph or public property.


24. Police to prevent cognisable offences.

Every police officer may interpose for the purpose of preventing, and shall to the best of his or her ability prevent, the commission of any cognisable offence.


25. Information of design to commit offences.

Every police officer receiving information of a design to commit any cognisable offence shall communicate the information to the police officer to whom he or she is subordinate and to any other officer whose duty it is to prevent or take cognisance of the commission of any such offence.


26. Arrest to prevent offences.

A police officer knowing of a design to commit any cognisable offence may arrest, without orders from a magistrate and without a warrant, the person so designing, if it appears to the officer that the commission of the offence cannot otherwise be prevented.


27. Prevention of injury to public property.

A police officer may of his or her own authority interpose to prevent any injury attempted to be committed in his or her view to any public property, movable or immovable, or the removal of or injury to any public landmark or buoy or other mark used for navigation.