KAMPALA, Uganda The Uganda Law Society has questioned the punitive and high bail term conditions being handed down by judicial officers across the country. This was revealed during the Uganda Law Society weekly press briefing in Kampala.

Public interest lawyer Amos Kuuku decried the growing trend of courts imposing excessive cash bail, even for pretrial release. He said that the practice contradicts constitutional provisions on the presumption of innocence and equality before the law.

” The use of money bail as a primary condition for release is a colonial hangover and an injustice that must be dismantled. One must never know when they’ll become a victim of this system. Kuku cited the recent case of fellow lawyer Eron Kiiza, who was, on April 4, 2025, granted a cash bail of 20 million shillings by Justice Michael Elubu after being convicted of contempt by the General Court Martial. Kuuku noted that the same judge had previously ruled in favour of lowering bail from 30 to 3 million shillings for opposition figure Dr Kiiza Besigye in a similar case.

This element, {cash bail}, concerns all the Ugandans, the rule of law, and human rights, so the judiciary has paid indifference to our plight. It is none of their business; they have made it all; they are on the top of the world. So it calls on the duty to ensure that these pre-colonial practices, colonial hangovers, and injustices are dealt with using all the available means because you never know when you shall be a candidate for such injustice.

Kuuku also highlighted the struggles of indigent clients under pro bono representation. In one case, a woman in Kabeiramado had to wait for her family to sell goats to raise 100,000 shillings in cash bail. Another man in Luwero was held for 18 months after failing to raise 1.5 million shillings set as bail.

” There is no justice when bail becomes a punishment. The prisons are now holding over 70,000 suspects, yet they were built for only 25,000. We are fuelling congestion with pretrial detentions. Kuuku added that according to the judiciary’s 2023 report, 2 billion shillings were refunded out of 26 billion collected from bail deposits, raising concerns over the growing commercialisation of justice. Kuuku noted

Kuuku also expressed his concerns that the judiciary failed to involve stakeholders , including the Legal Aid Service Providers Network (LASPNET), in the drafting of bail guidelines despite an earlier promise by Principal Judge Dr Flavian Zeija.