The Supreme Court has Wednesday adjourned the hearing of an application filed by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, the former National Unity Platform presidential candidate withdrawing his election petition until it’s published in the Uganda Gazette.

In his petition, Kyagulanyi was challenging President Yoweri Museveni’s win in the recently concluded presidential elections.

He however took a U-turn and instructed his lawyers to withdraw the case from the Supreme saying that the court was unable to deliver justice.

The hearing of his application to withdraw the case was however adjourned until its published in the Uganda Gazette.

What is the Gazette?

The Uganda Gazette is an official government publication that contains notices, government declarations and supplements, bills, statutes, statutory instruments and legal notices.

It is a weekly publication and is accessible to the public upon subscription.

The legal status of the Uganda Gazette is that it is the Official Government publication in which all important Government Communications to the public are usually effected by being published in the Gazette.

For example, Acts of Parliament are required by Article 91(8) of the Constitution to be published in the Gazette.

The Gazette is an official and authentic legal public information to the extent that if anything is published in the Gazette, it can be taken that the public is duly informed about the matter contained in therein.

It provides an update on the new and revised laws of Uganda passed by parliament on a weekly basis, opportunities for Business investment through the various notices from the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, professional bodies such as Law Council, Surveyor’s Board, Nurses and Midwives Council, Ordinances and bye-laws from the Local Government and other entities.

Once one is subscribed to the publication, it is delivered to their doorstep weekly.

Who publishes The Gazette?

The Uganda Gazette is published by the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC), which is established under Section 2 of the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation Act Cap. 330.      

The main function of the Corporation is to provide printing and publishing services to the Government, Ministries, Department, parastatal bodies and to private individuals and organizations.

The company recently got rewarded with the deal of processing and printing drivers’ licenses for the whole country replacing Face Technologies which has been handling the duty.

Why was Bobi Wine asked to publish his application in The Gazette?

Where anything is published in the Gazette, it can be taken that the public is duly informed about the matter contained in the Gazette.

In more recent times, in cases where the Government desires to ensure that by all means the public are duly informed, certain laws provide that in addition to Gazette publication the matter concerned be published in the media but Bobi Wine’s application is already in the media.

The other aspect is that if there is a requirement for Gazette publication under any enactment and the requirement is not complied with, it means the action under the requirement is not fully performed and it will therefore not have the intended legal effect.

History of the Uganda Gazette

The History of the Uganda Gazette can be traced back to the time of the missionaries in the 1880s. When they arrived in Uganda, the missionaries set up churches and schools. This exposed some Ugandans to the culture of reading and writing.

After the missionaries, the British colonialists came into Uganda and they also introduced their own education system. All these were exposing Ugandans to new ideas.

When the Second World War erupted, the British mobilized a number of Ugandans and took them to fight on their side in Europe.

By the end of the war these Ugandans had been exposed to so many ideologies and when they came back with these revolutionary ideas they started publishing newspapers like “Gambuzze”, “Munyonyozzi” and “Tula Nkunyonyole.”

Through these newspapers, revolutionary messages against the British colonialist were disseminated to the public.

In 1945 when country-wide riots against the British rule erupted, the British blamed the newspapers for fueling the riots and these papers were banned.

As a result, the British set up their own Newspaper called the “Uganda Gazette.” All this took place during the 1950s.

Other Newspapers were later published like the Uganda Argus. Today, there are many newspapers in Uganda like the New Vision, the Daily Monitor, the Observer etc.

The Uganda Gazette was retained as the official Government legal bulletin despite having other newspapers in circulation.