Police gas lost most of the cases related to human rights By Prisca WanyenyaParliament has raised concerns over the growing financial exposure Uganda Police Force, where the Force’s Court liabilities are said to have grown from UGX98Bn in 2024 to UGX163Bn in 2025, with majority of cases arising from human rights violations.This followed questions raised by Richard Wanyama Hamala (Samia-Bugwe Central) and Patrick Nsamba (Kassanda North) during a meeting held between the Public Accounts Committee and Uganda Police on 20th August 2026, to consider the December 2025 Auditor General’s report, where he sought clarification why Uganda Police is losing many of the cases in court, and whether this could be connivance between Police and the people suing the Force.Nsamba while clarifying on Wanyama’s case noted: “He is worried that the level at which Uganda police is taken to court and the level at which you are incurring, losing the cases, losing the cases is alarming. And it might mean that there is connivance and the people benefiting from these court cases, that’s why you’re losing them at a very high speed.”Aggrey Wunyi, Under Secretary, Uganda Police Force informed the Committee that the 171 cases that Police is grappling with were partly inherited from the Attorney General’s chambers, after Government took a decision to decentralize cases to the different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), but most of the cases are in five categories with 60% of them being human rights violations, yet these must be brought against the individual Police officers accused of these human rights violations.He explained, “One is the debts relating to civil aviation authority and that’s the rent issue. Civil aviation called the police at the airport in 1991 and the Police started helping them. Later they turned out and said you should pay rent for being Police and we are, that is why it is in court. Now, Uganda Telecom, during CHOGM, where they allowed us to put our gadgets on their masts.”James Waluswaka (Bunyonle West) however asked Uganda Police Force to clarify on one case where the plaintiff (Springwood) is demanding for US$6.5Million. Wunyi responded saying that the case is commercial in nature, just like another case worth UGX14Bn where an individual lost out on a procurement contract and sued Police for loss of income.He explained, “Springwood and Allies DBT are an the same category. Allies has UGX14 billion, that was a procurement dispute. Somebody claims that they participated in a procurement process. And they did not get an award and therefore, they have taken us to court. It is very interesting that when you participate in a procurement, even if at the end of the day you don’t get the contract. You say that you lost future income because you participated in the process.”However, Gilbert Olanya (Kilak South) raised concerns over the details in the attachments submitted by Uganda Police detailing the awards given in court, wondering how human rights violations were awarded UGX200Bn yet in Northern Uganda where his voters lost body parts at the hands of Police, they were simply paid off UGX50Million.“Their ears were cut, their lips were cut, and when they went to court, the awards that were given to them, maximally less than UGX50Million and what I am seeing here, I think there is something wrong with the police and the Attorney General. The awards of UGX50Billion, US$6.5Million the committee needs to get interest into this matter. This is one of the ways on how they connive with the office of the Attorney General and the swindle government resources. What kind of human rights violations that is awarded about UGX200Bn what is that?” Olanya remarked.Nsamba tasked the Uganda Police to furnish the Committee with all the information of all the cases against Police and urged fellow MPs to take interest in the matter during the proceeding meetings with other agencies, arguing that contingent liabilities are partly the reason why Government is grappling with huge domestic arrears.He noted, “We must pick special interest in this particular. Now, what you are going to do to us, you are going to submit all what has been awarded, we will have an engagement with the Attorney General, we will invite him about all the agencies and ministries because at the end of the day, it is what constitutes the domestic areas that we are grappling with as parliament across. So, let us pick major interest in this area to see how far they go in abusing it. So, for every agency that comes here, we must particularly interrogate this.”Meanwhile, Uganda Police Force was also put on the spotlight for spending over and above their budgetary allocations on payment of domestic arrears, with the Auditor General, Edward Akol citing the Statement of Appropriation based on Classification of Expenditure by Nature, revealing that although Uganda Police Force had an approved budget provision of UGX.21.18Bn for settlement of domestic arrears of which UGX.20.86Bn was released, the entity cleared prior year domestic arrears of UGX.54.84Bn, which exceeds the availed amount by UGX.33Bn.The Auditor General also revealed that the year ended 30th June, 2025 Uganda Police’s domestic arrears (payables) had reduced by 24%, from UGX.112.95Bn in 2023/24 to UGX.85.50Bn in 2024/25, the Force accumulated new arrears of UGX.27.19Bn in the year under review, where he warned that the accumulation of arrears would attract litigation for the Force.Akol noted, “It is also an indication of the failure in the commitment control system. The excess amount paid to settle arrears was diverted from other planned and funded activities thus affecting their implementation, which amounts to a mischarge. The misclassification of expenditures distorts financial reporting, undermines the reliability of the financial statements, and affects budget monitoring, making it difficult to assess the actual utilization of funds against planned activities.”Uganda Police informed the Committee that the arrears resulted from insufficient budget provisions, compounded by emergencies such as insecurity in the Rwenzori region and Kitezi Landfill operations. The arrears mainly relate to utilities, rent, operational feeding, court awards, and workers’ compensation and management’s efforts to reduce liabilities are reflected in the decline from UGX.112Bn in FY 2023/24 to UGX.85Bn in FY 2024/25.Wunyi informed the Committee that most of the unpaid invoices at the end of the year arise out of the fuel Police consumes and because Police has to keep running, the suppliers have to be paid to allow operations of the Force to continue.He noted, “We are dealing with a situation which is ideal, but not realistic because Parliament has never appropriated what we budget for, Parliament actually gives you a figure within which to work. Now for the case of arrears, it is even different because there is a committee that sits and randomly allocates money to entities irrespective of the stock of arrears.” The post Police Court Liabilities Hit UGX163bn as MPs Probe Human Rights Cases appeared first on Business Focus.