The High Court in Kampala has awarded Malcolm Lukwiya UGX 10 million in damages after ruling that his constitutional right to personal liberty was violated when he was unlawfully detained at Nalufenya Police Station in Jinja for approximately 16 days without being presented before a court.
In a judgment delivered electronically, Justice Bernard Namanya of the Civil Division found that Lukwiya was held beyond the 48-hour constitutional limit stipulated under Article 23 of the Constitution, which requires suspects to be brought before a competent court within two days of arrest.
The court held that the prolonged detention amounted to a violation of Lukwiya’s fundamental rights and ordered the government to compensate him for the unlawful detention.
However, the judge dismissed Lukwiya’s allegations of torture and extra-judicial rendition from Kenya to Uganda, citing insufficient evidence to support the claims.
Lukwiya had sued the Attorney General, alleging that Ugandan security operatives unlawfully arrested him in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2015 before transferring him to Uganda, where he was allegedly subjected to torture and illegal detention.
According to court records, Lukwiya was 17 years old at the time of his arrest and subsequent transfer. While the court acknowledged the unlawful detention, it found that the claims of torture and cross-border rendition were not backed by adequate evidence such as medical reports or independent witness testimony.
The ruling highlights the judiciary’s continued enforcement of constitutional safeguards against arbitrary detention while underscoring the evidentiary threshold required to prove allegations of torture and misconduct by security agencies.
The case also draws attention to allegations of cross-border security operations that were frequently reported during the 2010s, although the court declined to make findings on those claims due to lack of proof.
Lukwiya’s victory, though partial, represents a measure of legal redress more than a decade after the events that led to the lawsuit.
