Good News to Ugandan Sex Workers as IGP Orders Police to Stop Doing This.

Just three days after the Constitutional court struck down the offense of “rogue and vagabond” in the penal code act, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Martins Ochola, ordered police personnel to immediately stop arresting sex workers and gamblers.

According to Ochola’s statement, which was read by police spokesperson Fred Enanga, any police officer who is discovered to have arrested someone for rogue and vagabonding offenses including prostitution, gambling, or being idle and disorderly would be brought before the police disciplinary court.

“The scrapped cases will also help us free up resources to address other serious crimes. So, any police officer who will be found dealing in rogue and vagabond will face immediate disciplinary action for disobedience of lawful orders. In addition, all local leaders and community should comply with the ruling and desist from acts of vigilantism and mob justice,” said Ochola.

The Constitutional Court’s five justices determined this week that the rogue and vagabond offense should be repealed since it is obsolete and unconstitutional. They further stated that it violates the right to free movement.

The five justices, which included Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, Elizabeth Musoke, Christopher Madrama, Monica Mugenyi, and Christopher Gashirabake, highlighted that the rogue and vagabond offense violates article 43 of Uganda’s Constitution, which is the highest law of the state. Police have been accused on several instances of detaining people for no apparent reason and then charging them with the rogue and vagabond offense, which includes being idle and unruly.

“Behaviours that are no longer punishable or arrestable by law are the following; idle and disorderly where a person being a prostitute behaves in an indecent manner in any public place, you’re no longer supposed to be arrested, a person who wanders or takes himself or herself in a public place to beg or gathers or procures any child to do so, please just do your things, play any game of chance – all money’s worth in a public place, gambling, playing ludo for money, cards for money just go about your activities of playing chance,” said Enanga.

Najib Kasule, a public interest attorney, claims that police would now begin detaining suspects for major offenses rather than picking them up simply on their looks, such as having damaged or dirty clothes.

“Police used to bundle people on suspicious appearance. You have dreadlocks, and torn clothes and they arrest you. But because this escape is no longer there, they will stop those malicious arrests. They will start arresting people for serious crimes,” Kasule said.

The judgement by the Constitutional Court stems from a lawsuit brought in 2018 by Francis Tumwesige Ateenyi against the Attorney General. Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) backed Ateenyi in her demand that rogue and vagabonds be decriminalized for their poverty and position.

HRAPF has long contended that security agents often use rogue and vagabond to detain and prosecute the poor and oppressed, such as street sellers, sexual minorities, and sex workers.