Uganda’s Witchcraft Act Explained in Plain English

This page is general information, not legal advice. If you are charged, accused or threatened, speak to a lawyer or a legal aid service.

Where the law comes from

The Witchcraft Act was enacted on 28 March 1957, before independence. Ugandan writers trace it to colonial reactions to religious and political resistance, including the Nyabingi movement in Kigezi from 1912 to 1921, and the movement led by Kigaanira Ssewanyanna Kibuuka in Buganda after the 1953 Kabaka crisis. In older law books it is Cap 108, and in the 2000 edition of the Laws of Uganda it is Cap 124. Chapter numbers change when the laws are revised, so check the current edition.

What the Act criminalises

The main offences, as quoted by Uganda’s courts, are:

• Threatening death by witchcraft. Directly or indirectly threatening someone with death by witchcraft or other supernatural means: up to life imprisonment.
• Threatening harm by witchcraft. Threatening to cause disease or physical harm to a person, or harm to livestock or property, by witchcraft or supernatural means: up to ten years.
• Practising witchcraft. Practising witchcraft or holding yourself out as a witch, even once: up to five years.
• Possessing witchcraft articles. Possessing an article used in practising witchcraft, other than for a bona fide scientific purpose or as a cure: up to five years.

The Act also lets courts make an “exclusion order” banning a convicted person from an area. As explained below, the Supreme Court has declared that power unconstitutional.

The important exception

The Act’s interpretation section says that “witchcraft” does not include bona fide spirit worship, or the bona fide manufacture, supply or sale of native medicines. In plain terms: honest traditional religion and honest herbal medicine are not witchcraft under this Act. The problem, as critics point out, is that the Act never says what witchcraft actually is. It mostly says what it is not.

The Salvatori Abuki case

Salvatori Abuki was charged in a magistrate’s court at Aduku, in Lira District, with practising witchcraft. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 22 months in prison plus a ten-year exclusion order. He challenged the law in the Constitutional Court.

In June 1997 the Constitutional Court, by majority, held that the sections defining the offences were too vague to meet Article 28(12) of the Constitution, which says no one may be convicted of an offence that is not defined in law. It also held that the exclusion order was inhuman because it threatened his life and his access to his property.

The Attorney General appealed. On 25 May 1999 the Supreme Court decided:

• Unanimously, that the witchcraft offences are sufficiently defined, so Article 28(12) was not violated.
• Unanimously, that an exclusion order is not a compulsory taking of property.
• By majority, that section 7, which allows exclusion orders, is void because banishing a person from home is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under Articles 24 and 44(a).

So the offences survived, but banishment did not.

Is the Witchcraft Act still in force in 2026?

As far as we can tell, yes. We found no law repealing it as of 11 October 2026. In 2023 Ugandan legal scholars were still calling for its repeal, arguing that it conflicts with constitutional rights to equality, belief, expression and culture. Reporting from 2022 said prosecutions are rare because offences are hard to prove. Laws change, so check the current Laws of Uganda or ask a lawyer.

Other laws that matter

Serious harm done in the name of witchcraft is mainly prosecuted under other laws. Uganda’s human sacrifice law of 2021 provides for the death penalty for human sacrifice and life imprisonment for possessing human body parts for rituals. Murder, assault and fraud remain crimes whatever belief is involved. Mob violence against people accused of witchcraft is also a crime. See witchcraft in Uganda.

What this means for healers and clients

• Honest herbal medicine and genuine spirit worship fall within the Act’s exception.
• Threatening anyone with death, disease or harm by supernatural means is a serious offence.
• Healers also need to follow drug and health laws for herbal products. See NDA and herbal medicine.
• Healers listed on Juju.ug must not offer curses or harmful rituals. See our safety policy.