The High Court has found that the actions of senior police officers SP Edina Nyiraneza, SP Atamba Phoebe, and Cpl Richard Wandeya violated the fundamental rights of two applicants, awarding them a total of Shs 80 million in damages. Justice Stephen Mubiru delivered the ruling on June 8, 2026, in a case filed by Kiranda Timothy and Mubiru Emmanuel, who accused state actors and their associates of colluding to deprive them of their liberty, fair hearing, and protection from ill‑treatment. The case arose from a land dispute over a three‑acre kibanja in Mukono District, which the second applicant said he lawfully acquired between 2017 and 2019 from Ms Nantumbwe Florence and her son. He established a sugarcane plantation worth an estimated Shs 225 million, but in 2023, Nantumbwe’s grandchildren allegedly destroyed the crop, prompting a civil suit.
The court heard that the grandchildren then enlisted land brokers and purported State House operatives, who, together with the Mukono Resident District Commissioner (RDC) and police officers, moved to reclaim the land and evict the applicant. On July 24, 2025, the RDC issued an injunctive order barring the second applicant from accessing the land, even as his civil case was pending in court. The applicants told court that instead of protecting their interests, the police facilitated further encroachment and destruction of the sugarcane. In November 2025, they were arrested and charged on what they described as false criminal accusations, while the kibanja was fully taken over by Nantumbwe’s grandchildren and subdivided into plots for sale. In their application, brought under the Constitution and the Human Rights Enforcement Act, the applicants sought declarations that their arrest and detention beyond 48 hours, the RDC’s unilateral injunctive directive, the police’s role in distributing their property without a court order, and the shielding of suspects from prosecution all violated their constitutional rights. They asked court to restrain further criminal proceedings against them, compel their restoration to the land, and award general, aggravated, and special damages, interest, and costs.
Justice Mubiru found that through the unlawful acts of SP Nyiraneza, SP Atamba, and Cpl Wandeya, Kiranda was detained for 168 hours without charge, far beyond the 48‑hour limit prescribed by law. He stressed that in disputes involving estates and land, police officers must manage conflicts in a way that avoids loss and ensures fair treatment of all parties. State actors, he noted, are bound by Article 21 of the Constitution to act impartially and must not allow personal bias or discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, disability, or other protected characteristics to influence their decisions. The judge faulted the police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for operational failures, emphasising that the duty to carry out prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations and to bring perpetrators to justice is a shared responsibility. Once the ODPP has sanctioned charges and directed that a case proceed, he held, the police’s role is to ensure suspects appear before court, not to frustrate or halt prosecutions. On remedies, the court explained that damages in rights enforcement cases focus on individual loss, including pain and suffering from unlawful detention, physical ill‑treatment, mental anguish, or economic loss such as ruined livelihoods and legal expenses. Awards must avoid double compensation while still reflecting the gravity of the violations and the impact on dignity and reputation. Justice Mubiru declared that the unlawful acts leading to Kiranda’s prolonged detention infringed his rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement, and protection from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. He awarded the first applicant Shs 5 million in damages against the Attorney General, cited as the eighth respondent.
The court also found that the actions of the RDC, for whom the Attorney General is vicariously liable, violated the second applicant’s right to just and fair treatment in administrative decisions under Article 42, awarding him Shs 1 million. Further, the court ruled that the failure by police officers to prosecute suspects in a case reported by the second applicant—despite charges having been sanctioned by the ODPP—breached his right to equality before and under the law. For that infringement, the second applicant was awarded Shs 30 million against the Attorney General. The judge held that shielding suspects from prosecution while pursuing charges against the complainant amounted to discriminatory law enforcement contrary to Article 21 of the Constitution. In relation to physical abuse, the court declared that by subjecting Mubiru to severe assault, two of the respondents infringed his freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under Article 24.
For this violation, Mubiru was awarded Shs 25 million in damages against each of the two respondents responsible. The court also ordered that the applicants be paid the costs of the application, adding to the overall financial burden on the respondents. The ruling sends a strong warning to public officials, including RDCs and police commanders, that they will be held personally and vicariously liable when they abuse their authority in land disputes or use criminal processes to aid land grabbing. It reinforces constitutional safeguards on liberty, fair hearing, equality before the law, and protection from ill‑treatment, while underscoring that administrative power cannot lawfully override ongoing civil proceedings or be used to dispossess citizens of their property.
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