Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) woman league leader Ms. Ingrid Turinawe was on Monday 16^th January 2012 arrested by police at her home in Nakwera Gayaza, a city suburb in Kampala. According to Ms. Turinawe she woke up that morning only to find her home surrounded by police at which point police informed her that she could not go to town because they suspected that she was going to do “funny things”. This later culminated into a chase between her and the police as they attempted to stop her from leaving her home.

Considering that;

Article 23 of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda guarantees the right to personal liberty and prescribes exceptions to the same to include in execution of the sentence or order of a court, for the purposes of bringing that person before that court among others;

and Article 28(12) of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda provides that no person shall be convicted of a criminal offence unless the offence is defined and the penalty for it prescribed by law.

This therefore implies that no one may be deprived of his or her freedom except in the circumstances stipulated under Article 23 as seen above. In addition, under International law the principle of legality is recognised, the rationale of which is to prevent governments from harassing or intimidating its opponents by using the criminal justice system. This is resonated under Article 28(12) of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda

As such, FHRI would like to strongly condemn the manner in which FDC woman league leader was arrested. For one to be arrested he or she must have committed an offence under the laws of our country failure of which would amount to infringement of his or her right to liberty.

Therefore, FHRI would like to recommend that:

• In future, armed institutions like the police should in as much as possible in the execution of their duties strive to uphold, respect and defend the human rights values of all people as required by the Constitution.
• 
  
• The police force should at all times, in carrying out their mandate, exercise restraint especially during the arrest of suspects.
• 
  
• Before one is arrested on suspicion of being about to commit a crime, the police should ensure that they have reasonable evidence since there is a crucial need to balance the mandate of maintaining law and order and protecting one’s Constitutional rights.