By Al-Haji Faruk Kirunda
President Yoweri Museveni last week signed two bills into law: the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2026 and the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026.
The Head-Of-State had stood over the signing of the two Bills and returned them to Parliament for reconsideration, objecting to clauses he said could create unfair competition, encourage tax avoidance and negatively affect economic activity.
Parliament subsequently adopted the President’s recommendations on both pieces of legislation on August 4, 2026, paving the way for him to assent to them, after which they became Acts of law.
What follows is gazettement then they become operational. President Museveni has assented to many Bills since he came to power in exercise of powers vested in him under the Constitution. Every law under implementation has a presidential seal on it in recognition of his executive role as chief custodian of the authority of the state of Uganda.
His Excellency the President has judiciously performed that function with distinction, presence of mind and in full regard to the interests of the common person. However, according to my research, an uncomfortably large section of Ugandans is uninformed about many aspects of law.
They don’t know what’s in the statute books until problems befall them and they are in the courts of law answering to charges. For such, it’s a judicial ambush of sorts yet that’s not the purpose of law. The age old adage “ignorance of the law is no defense” is crude.
It doesn’t fit in the circumstances prevailing in the country where politics, socioeconomic agenda, law and order are all intended to be pro-people. Law is a necessity to maintain social order and preserve national stability. Therefore, it is most imperative that citizens are well-versed with the letter and spirit of the law so that they may do their part to preserve its sanctity.
If someone conducted a standard countryside survey to establish the population’s awareness of what the law books have to say, the majority would be victims of “legal blindness”-living in and doing things that would land them in trouble if it wasn’t for sheer luck.
As an example, how many people have built without approved plans? How about those trading or manufacturing without prerequisite licensing or certification? Then there is the law on negligence- in all its forms including negligence of duty and rush act by negligence.
Many public servants have a challenge understanding the offence of “causing financial loss”, a criminal offense under Section 20 of the Anti-Corruption Act. What’s the distinction from other acts of corruption? Others include misprision of treason (where one knows of a plot to overthrow the state but doesn’t report to the authorities), annoying the President and offences related to misuse of digital platforms. On the latter two offences, Genz (bazzukulu) are particularly caught in an information vacuum that exposes them to needless litigation and run-ins with state organs.
Many people don’t even know what’s in the Constitution, the mother document of all law in the land!!The annual police crime reports perennially show a spike in crime. Regardless of other factors responsible, limited awareness about provisions of the law and respective liabilities contributes to the crime burden.
Yet this could be prevented by intensifying sensitisation and demystification of the law as a witness to the “dos and don’ts” in the national legal framework. Moreover, some of the laws are not only about statutory sanctions on individual conduct.
Some laws are enacted to regulate business, professional lines of work and empowerment initiatives of government in a way that benefits the public, not forgetting that upholding law is a collective benefit. Crime must be tackled to safeguard society’s peace and harmony. The Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS), for all its backlog and milestones of duty, has a supplementary role to play in closing the gap between the statute books and the ordinary citizen.
How do we ascertain that there are no grey areas and blind corners around the respective laws governing different spheres of the nation? Because in executing the judicial function, care should be taken that no one is sanctioned from a point of ignorance when he or she could have been compliant had they got sufficient exposure to the tenets of the law and its purpose. Ugandans are generally a peace-loving and law-abiding people.
The problematic ones are few-the caliber that will adamantly offend the law believing that they can get away with it anyhow (impunity) or those that are driven to commit crime because of circumstances. Surprisingly or not, some of the people that engage in acts of mob justice do so believing that there is nothing wrong because they are presumably punishing criminals caught in the act.
Yet the law regards mob justice as murder or manslaughter. The role of punishing criminals is vested in the courts assisted by police and the DPP to ascertain culpability of suspects. Emotions and anger do not usurp that function.
The Judiciary (courts), Legislature (Parliament), police, Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC), every other stakeholder in that line; here is a task! Ugandans should be adequately brought in close touch with the laws-to know that they exist, what they provide for and the penalties thereof, and the role of the individual in upholding those laws.
It is said that Uganda has the best laws on record but implementation is a problem. What causes that? Partly, it’s due to lack of awareness, yet these laws cost government a lot of money to enact. Parliament exists chiefly to make law and that comes with a cost on the consolidated fund.
The very dispensation of lawful governance cost blood and sweat to install. Therefore, the privilege of living in a lawful society should be fully harnessed so that Ugandans fully own the lawmaking and implementation processes as a direct accessory in building a harmonious, crime-free and progressive society.
The laws- right from when they are still in the making in Parliament and after the President has assented to them- should be broken down and interpreted as simply as possible for the public. The better if they are translated into local dialects for avoidance of ambiguity and unwitting exclusion of “hard-to-reach” target groups. This will make the Law generally “user-friendly” and usher in a renewed era of constitutionalism and legal compliance.
The author is the Special Presidential Assistant-Press & Mobilisation/Deputy Press Secretary-State HouseEmail: [email protected]
