Unwanted Witness, a civil society organisation has welcomed the move by President Yoweri Museveni to assent onto the much needed Data protection and privacy Bill, 2018 into law.
The President signed the bill into law on February 25, 2019.
The new law will now help protect privacy of individuals and that of personal data by regulating the collection and processing of personal informal, contrary to what has been happening in the past without a law.
“Having a data protection law for Uganda is positive step towards recognizing and upholding citizens’ constitutional right to privacy that has for decades been violated, yet privacy enables the enjoyment of other rights including freedom of expression, opinion, opinion and access to information,” said Dorothy Mukasa, Chief Executive Office, of the Non-Government Organisation.
She commended the efforts of all stakeholders involved in the policy process and urged the relevant ministry to fast track formulation of regulations for law enforcement.
“Unwanted Witness commits to continue working with all allies to analyse the law to ensure that it meets the necessary, proportionate and legitimate principles of data protection as well as international best practices on human rights.”
The bill was in December 2018 passed by the Parliament of Uganda and was awaiting be assented to by the President.
The law operationalises Article 27 (2) of the 1995 Uganda constitution which guarantees citizens’ right privacy. It stipulates that, “no person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of that person’s home, correspondence, communication or other property.”
